Pia Svedberg's research group
Research within the group is primarily concentrated on sickness absence studies. The studies are mainly based on data from twins and data from a number of national registers that have been linked to these to understand how genes and environment influence health, behavior and sickness absence.
In the group, we carry out quantitative genetic studies - that is, try to evaluate the relative importance of genes and environment for sickness absence (sick leave and disability pension) - and cotwin-control studies, where the significance of exposures to the outcomes is evaluated after controlling for genetic predisposition. The research is multidisciplinary and includes medical, genetic, epidemiological, and psychological research questions.
Research projects
1. STODS: the Swedish Twin project Of Disability pension and Sickness absence
2. A twin study of factors associated with burnout
4. Shift work, sleep, morbidity and mortality
5. Sustainable working life: early determinants and later predictors (SustWork)
7. Pain, common mental disorders, and work incapacity
Selected publications
Wang M, Ropponen A, Narusyte J, Helgadóttir B, Bergström G, Blom V, Svedberg P. Adverse outcomes of chronic widespread pain and common mental disorders in individuals with sickness absence – a prospective study of Swedish twins. BMC Public Health. 2020;20:1301.
Mather L, Kärkkäinen S, Narusyte J, Ropponen A, Mittendorfer-Rutz E, Svedberg P. Sick leave due to back pain, common mental disorders and disability pension: Common genetic liability. European Journal of Pain. 2020;00:1–10. DOI: 10.1002/ejp.1635.
Narusyte J, Ropponen A, Mittendorfer-Rutz E. Svedberg P. Shared liability to pain, common mental disorders, and long-term work disability differs among women and men. PAIN 2020; 161(5):1005-1011. DOI: 10.1097/j.pain.0000000000001787.
Helgadóttir B, Narusyte J, Ropponen A, Bergström G, Mather L, Blom V, Svedberg P. The role of occupational class on the association between sickness absence and disability pension: A Swedish register-based twin study. Scand J Work Environ Health. 2019;45(6):622-630. doi:10.5271/sjweh.3816.
Svedberg P, Mather L, Bergström G, Lindfors P, Blom V. Work-home interference, perceived total workload and the risk of future sickness absence due to stress-related mental diagnoses among women and men: a prospective twin study. International Journal of Behavioral Medicine. 2018;25:103-111.
Ropponen A, Mather L, Narusyte J, Åkerstedt T, Mittendorfer-Rutz E, Svedberg P. Night work as a risk factor for future cause-specific disability pension: a prospective twin cohort study in Sweden. Chronobiology International. 2018;35(2):249-260.
Svedberg P, Ropponen A, Alexanderson K, Lichtenstein P, Narusyte J. Genetic susceptibility to sickness absence is similar among women and men: findings from a Swedish twin cohort. Twin Research and Human Genetics, 2012; Oct;15(5):642-8.
Narusyte J, Ropponen A, Silventoinen K, Alexanderson K, Kaprio J, Samuelsson A, Svedberg P. Genetic Liability to Disability Pension in Women and Men: a Prospective Population-Based Twin Study. PLoS ONE, 2011, 6(8):e23143.