About SweJEM

The purpose of SweJEM is to have a cohesive tool for exposure classification of the work environment. With this, we can evaluate occurrences and trends of work-related exposures to physical, chemical, psychosocial, and precarious working conditions nationally in Sweden and classify occupational exposure in large scale epidemiological studies. The basis for SweJEM varies depending on the exposure classified. The exposure assessment for noise, vibration, air pollutants and chemicals are based on measurement reports from Swedish and Finnish workplaces. These have been processed to reflect Swedish working conditions. Data from Statistics Sweden's Labour Force Surveys regarding the reported level of physical workload  and psychosocial stress have also been used. Low quality employment has been assessed by register data from the longitudinal integrated database for health insurance and labour market studies at Statistics Sweden, the LISA register, that has been merged with matrices over precarious dimensions.  

All these occupational exposures are built together into a multifactorial job-exposure matrix.  A level of exposure is defined for each occupational group according to different occupational coding systems so it can be used to classify exposure in both new and old epidemiological data. These occupational codes can be merged into different working populations if occupational codes are available in population data. 

The matrix has also been applied to a national register to observe exposure patterns in the entire working population in Sweden. Occurrence and time trends have been evaluated in relation to individual factors such as age, gender, level of education and information concerning companies and industry, such as number of employees or form of ownership. 

SweJEM has been developed through a collaboration between the Institute for Environmental Medicine (IMM) at Karolinska Institutet and the Centre for Occupational and Environmental Medicine (CAMM) at Region Stockholm. In the development work, experts at other universities, such as Gothenburg University and Umeå University, have also contributed. Decisions regarding the development and use of SWEJEM are made by a joint steering committee. SweJEM is maintained and hosted by Karolinska Institutet (SweJEM@ki.se). 

Steering Committee

Jenny Selander (Chair), Associate Professor, Research Group Leader and Head of Unit of Occupational Medicine, IMM, KI

Anette Linnersjö (Coordinator), Lic.Med., KI and Statistician, CAMM

Theo Bodin, Associate Professor, Research Group Leader, IMM, KI and Director, CAMM

Daniel Falkstedt, Associate Professor, Research Group Leader, IMM, KI

Katarina Kjellberg, Associate Professor, KI and Ergonomist, CAMM

Mattias Sjöström, PhD, KI and Occupational hygienist, CAMM

Pernilla Wiebert, PhD, KI and Occupational hygienist, CAMM