Study on health, stress and well-being
Health, stress and well-being look different in different parts of the population. In order to gain a better understanding of the reasons for these differences, Karolinska Institutet is conducting a study in collaboration with Yale University (USA). The purpose of the questionnaire is to provide the researchers with increased knowledge and understanding about what causes ill health and reduced well-being in different groups across different areas of life.
This increased knowledge will be important to understand, among other things, how different people deal with stress, but also how society can offer all people the same conditions for a healthy and good life. You are one of 200,000 people who have been randomly selected from the population register.
How does the study work?
If you choose to participate in the study, it means that you will be asked to answer questions via a web survey about health, stress, well-being and your life situation once a year for the next three years. Answering the questions will take about 25-30 minutes per round.
Your answers are important
Participating in the survey is voluntary and you can choose to withdraw at any time, but we hope you want to participate because your answers are very important.
Many thanks in advance for your participation!
Are you wondering about something? Please contact us!
Questions about the survey
Benjamin Smart
Responsible researcher
Richard Bränström
Karolinska Institutet
Karolinska Institutet is one of the world's leading medical universities. Our vision is to drive the development of knowledge about life and work for better health for everyone.
What happens to my data?
The project concerns research into health and well-being and includes statistical analyses of survey responses and register data.
In order to not ask more than necessary and to be able to carry out a more comprehensive survey of health, your survey answers are supplemented with information that is already available at Statistics Sweden, the National Board of Health and the Swedish Defense Conscription and Assessment Agency. This is information about gender, age, marital status, family, migration, residence, area of residence, socioeconomics, diagnoses, health, care events, medication use, birth outcomes, study and enrollment results, own and parents' country of birth (grouped), citizenship (grouped), year of immigration, education, occupation, work sector, income, allowances, sickness and activity compensation and old-age pension. As health is affected by heredity and family relationships, information is also retrieved for spouses, partners, parents, siblings and children.
Statistics Sweden processes the data and removes the person number, name, and address. The data is then handed over to Karolinska Institutet.
In order to enable follow-ups with register data, Statistics Sweden creates serial numbers that are linked to person numbers for those who participate in the survey. The link (code key) is saved separately from survey responses and register data and is destroyed when the follow-ups are completed.
In the questionnaire, there is an opportunity to register an interest in participating in a follow-up study. If you choose to participate and leave your email address, it will be handed over to Karolinska Institutet together with your survey answers.
The data about you will be collected using a webserver managed by Yale University and therefore transferred to the United States of America (USA). All of your responses will be held in confidence. However, the data protection laws in the USA might be different than in Sweden. You have the right to ask that we delete your personal information. If we still have your personal identifiers, we will delete them to the extent we can and unlink the data from any information that could identify you. Contact us at: BLISS-cns@ki.se. For further information about your privacy rights see our Privacy Statement at privacy.yale.edu or contact the Privacy Office at privacy@yale.edu.
How are your answers protected?
It will not be clear what exactly you have answered when the results of the survey are reported.
Information about individuals' personal and financial circumstances is protected by confidentiality at Statistics Sweden and everyone who works with the survey has a duty of confidentiality. Secrecy applies according to ch. 24. Section 8 of the Publicity and Confidentiality Act (2009:400). The same confidentiality protection applies at Karolinska Institutet.
Those who work with the analysis of data in the study at Karolinska Institutet will never have access to your social security number and all information is saved on a secure, password-protected and encrypted data server that is regularly backed up and that is protected inside firewalls with two-factor authentication.
How is the personal data processed?
Your personal data will be processed in accordance with the EU Data Protection Regulation, the Act (2001:99) and the Regulation (2001:100) on the official statistics and other applicable legislation.
Statistics Swede is the personal data controller for the processing of personal data that Statistics Sweden carries out. Karolinska Institutet is the personal data controller for the processing of personal data carried out by Karolinska Institutet. Statistics Sweden's and Karolinska Institutet's legal basis for processing your personal data is that the processing is necessary to carry out a task of public interest (producing statistics and research). You can find more information about how SCB handles personal data at www.scb.se/personpädten.
If you are dissatisfied with the way your personal data is processed, you have the right to send a complaint to the Swedish Data Protection Authority.
You have the right to receive a copy, a register extract, of the personal data that Statistics Sweden processes about you. Go to www.scb.se/registerutdrag. In some cases, you also have the right to have your data deleted. You also have the right to access the information about you that is handled in the study by Karolinska Institutet and, if necessary, have any errors corrected. In that case, contact Richard Bränström (leg. psychologist, docent), tel. 08-524 824 82 and e-mail: richard.branstrom@ki.se .
Do you have questions about personal data?
Contact the data protection officer at Statistics Sweden (010-479 40 00, dataskyddsombud@scb.se, 701 89 Örebro) or Karolinska Institutet (08-524 864 73, dataskyddsombud@ki.se, 171 77 Stockholm).
How do I get information about the results of the study?
Results from the study will be reported in scientific publications and will also be communicated to the public via the news media.