Anna Kågesten
About me
Associate Professor in Global Health with focus on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) and Adolescent Health. Teamleder within the Global and Sexual Health research group at the Department of Global Public Health, Karolinska Institutet. 15+ years research and technical experience in advacing SRHR globally with focus on adolescents and young people.
Previous professional experience as a research consultant to several international organizations including the World Health Organization (WHO). I also have experience working with SRHR within the Swedish health-care system and improving the quality of sexuality education in Swedish schools.
Education
PhD from the Department of Population, Family and Reproductive Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (2017)
Master of Public Health (MPH) in epidemiology and global health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (2012).
Bachelor of Public Health from the University of Gothenburg (2007).
Academic honours, awards and prizes
Phi Beta Kappa, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (2017)
Delta Omega Public Health Honor Society, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (2017)
Caroline Cochrane Award for Population and Reproductive Health (2015)
Daphne Purves Award, Graduate Women International (2014)
Fellowship in Family Planning, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (2013, 2014, 2016)
International Peace Scholar, P.E.O International (2011, 2012)
Fulbright Grant, Fulbright Commission Sweden (2011)
Research
My research focuses on the intersection between social and structural determinants of health, such as gender inequality and empowerment, with sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR). The overall aim of my research is to promote SRHR among young people and vulnerablized populations, by generating evidence to inform policy and optimize interventions that are accessible, acceptable and sustainable within resource-limited contexts. I am particularly interested in 1) understanding the complexities, disparities and drivers of gender norms, violence and its link with SRHR among young people in resource-limited contexts
- 2) optimizing implementation and evaluation of interventions to promote sexual health and wellbeing among younger as well as older adolescents
- 3) improving measurement and monitoring of SRHR and other sensitive topics that are critical to advance health and wellbeing.
I use quantitative and qualitative methods to explore a broad range of topics related to SRHR, such as determinants of teenage pregnancy in low-income settings, norms and values related to gender and sexuality, sexual- and gender-based violence, HIV prevention, fertility intentions, - sexual wellbeing, sexual risk-taking and early sexual debut, and interventions to improve adolescent SRHR. Most of my research is located in low- and lower-middle income countries and I have been part of several multi-county studies spanning sub-Saharan Africa, South and South-East Asia, South America, North America and Western Europe.
I have a PhD from the Department of Population, Family and Reproductive Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health with a focus on adolescent reproductive health and epidemiology (2017), and a Master in Public Health from the same institution (2012).
Areas of expertise include:- Sexual and reproductive health and rights
- Adolescent health
- Teenage pregnancy
- Very young adolescents (10-14 years)
- Sexual and gender-based violence
- Social and gender norms
- Epidemiology
- Mixed-methods research
- Implementation research
- Systematic and scoping reviews
I am a member of the Global Action for Measurement of Adolescent Health (GAMA) Advisory Group, led by the WHO in collaboration with the UN H6+ partnership agencies (UNAIDS, UNESCO, UNFPA, UNICEF, UN Women, the World Bank Group, and the World Food Programme). Additionally, I am an expert member of the newly-established WHO Sexual Health and Well-Being Advisory Group (SWAG).
Current main projects and collaborations:
ENding HIV transmission to infants by Generating Evidence to optimize prevention and care for pregnant and postpartum Adolescent Girls and young women with HIV (ENGAGE): I am the PI for this 5-year project which seeks to optimize prevention of vertical HIV transmission care for pregnant and postpartum adolescent girls and young women in Tanzania. In collaboration with our co-investigators at Management Development for Health in Tanzania, we will use data from a large registry-based cohort of pregnant and postpartum girls and young women with HIV, and combine this with evidence reviews and qualitative interviews to better understand the needs of most-at-risk AGYW. Findings will be used to co-design and test an intervention package that can be easily implemented in routine healthcare to optimize prevention of vertical HIV transmission services (VR funded 2023-2027).
GLOBE-HPV: multi-country study funded by the Gates Foundation, aiming to estimate the burden of HPV as well as barriers to prevention/treatment among girls and women countries without national HPV vaccination programs. I am the KI lead investigator for this study which is led by the the International Vaccine Institute in collaboration with London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and collaborators in eight countries (Bangladesh, Nepal, and Pakistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, and Zambia). KI is leading the qualitative sub-studies to further understand how gender-related dynamics create barriers to HPV prevention, screening, and treatment services. Read more about the project here: https://news.ki.se/funding-for-global-study-on-hpv-burden-among-girls-and-women
BUDDY study: Collaboration with the Desmond Tutu Health Foundation on a project to assess the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on gender-based violence among young people living with and without HIV in South Africa. This includes a PhD project to evaluate the effect of a school-based primary prevention intervention to prevent gender-based violence during times of public health crises (VR funded 2020-2022, extended).
HPV-END-IT: I am a co-investigator on this project which seeks to address HPV vaccine hesitancy by co-designing a digital health intervention with and for socioeconomically disadvantaged adolescents and parents/guardians in Sweden (FORTE funded 2024-2027)
Selected other projects
Research project in Argentina focusing self-managed community-based abortion in collaboration with CEDES and CREP in Argentina, World Health Organisation in Geneva, and RIVM in the Netherlands (PI: Amanda Cleeve, VR funded)
Explore4Action, evaluation of the comprehensive sexuality education programme Setara in Indonesia together with Rutgers International (Gates foundation funded)
Norms and values related to gender &- SRHR in four sub-Saharan African countries together with World Values Survey and Expertbyrån för biståndsanalys
Prevention of sexual and gender-based violence among adolescents in Kenya, Malawi and South Sudan
Sexual wellbeing and consent among young people in Ecuador and Uganda, collaboration with Plan International and Rutgers International: https://plan-international.org/publications/young-people-sexual-wellbeing-consent/
Women's economic empowerment India, collaboration with the World Values Survey, University of California San Diego and Gates Foundation
WelTel PMTCT randomised controlled trial in western Kenya
SRHR knowledge, attitudes and behaviours among newly-arrived migrants in Stockholm
Teaching
- Course leader, Planning and design of public health interventions, 7.5 credits, Stockholm University in collaboration with KI
- Course Leader, Human Rights and International Organizations in a Global Health Perspective, 7.5 credits, KI
- Course leader, International Adolescent Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public health, 6 credits
- Lecturer at graduate and undergraduate levels on topics related to SRHR, gender norms and health, adolescent health and SRHR, human rights, systematic reviews, peer-reviewing, etc.
- Supervision for several doctoral students (3 as main supervisor) and master students
Selected publications
- Article: JOURNAL OF ADOLESCENT HEALTH. 2023;73(1):S5-S14
Articles
- Article: GLOBAL HEALTH ACTION. 2024;17(1):2294592
- Journal article: BULLETIN OF THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION. 2024;102(12):843-843A
- Journal article: BULLETIN OF THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION. 2024;102(12):907-909
- Journal article: JOURNAL OF ADOLESCENT HEALTH. 2024;75(4):s20-s36
- Journal article: CULTURE, HEALTH & SEXUALITY. 2024;:1-16
- Article: BMC PUBLIC HEALTH. 2024;24(1):2569
- Journal article: BMJ PUBLIC HEALTH. 2024;2(2):e001090
- Journal article: THE LANCET CHILD AND ADOLESCENT HEALTH. 2024;8(7):522-531
- Journal article: REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH. 2024;21(1):90
- Journal article: JOURNAL OF ADOLESCENT HEALTH. 2024;74(6):S31-S46
- Journal article: JOURNAL OF ADOLESCENT HEALTH. 2024;74(6):S47-S55
- Journal article: JOURNAL OF ADOLESCENT HEALTH. 2024;74(6):s66-s79
- Journal article: JOURNAL OF ADOLESCENT HEALTH. 2024;74(6):s56-s65
- Article: SCANDINAVIAN JOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH. 2024;52(3):299-308
- Article: SOCIAL SCIENCE AND MEDICINE. 2024;348:116777
- Article: JOURNAL OF THE INTERNATIONAL AIDS SOCIETY. 2024;27(2):e26186
- Article: REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH. 2024;21(1):90
- Article: JOURNAL OF INTERPERSONAL VIOLENCE. 2023;38(21-22):11520-11544
- Article: CONTRACEPTION. 2023;126:110119
- Article: JOURNAL OF ADOLESCENT HEALTH. 2023;73(1):s55-s64
- Article: JOURNAL OF ADOLESCENT HEALTH. 2023;73(1):s21-s32
- Article: SCIENTIFIC REPORTS. 2023;13(1):9389
- Journal article: JOURNAL OF ADOLESCENT HEALTH. 2023;72(3):s48
- Journal article: JOURNAL OF ADOLESCENT HEALTH. 2023;72(3):s58
- Journal article: SSM: QUALITATIVE RESEARCH IN HEALTH. 2022;2:100195
- Article: JOURNAL OF ADOLESCENT HEALTH. 2022;71(4):455-465
- Article: BMC PUBLIC HEALTH. 2022;22(1):625
- Article: SCIENTIFIC REPORTS. 2021;11(1):22652
- Article: GLOBAL HEALTH, SCIENCE AND PRACTICE. 2021;9(3):508-522
- Article: REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH. 2021;18(1):153
- Article: JOURNAL OF ADOLESCENT HEALTH. 2021;69(1):S31-S38
- Article: SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED INFECTIONS. 2021;97(2):88-92
- Article: BMJ OPEN. 2021;11(2):e041545
- Article: BMC PREGNANCY AND CHILDBIRTH. 2020;20(1):225
- Article: CULTURE, HEALTH & SEXUALITY. 2019;21(4):387-403
- Article: CULTURE, HEALTH & SEXUALITY. 2018;20(12):1299-1316
- Article: JOURNAL OF ADOLESCENT HEALTH. 2017;61(4):S48-S54
- Article: JOURNAL OF ADOLESCENT HEALTH. 2017;61(4):S42-S47
- Article: BMC MEDICAL RESEARCH METHODOLOGY. 2017;17(1):117
- Journal article: JOURNAL OF YOUTH DEVELOPMENT. 2017;12(2):41-60
- Article: CONFLICT AND HEALTH. 2017;11(Suppl 1):24
- Article: JOURNAL OF ADOLESCENT HEALTH. 2016;59(6):696-702
- Article: BMC PUBLIC HEALTH. 2016;16(1):1170
- Article: ARCHIVES OF SEXUAL BEHAVIOR. 2015;44(3):679-694
- Article: PLOS ONE. 2015;10(9):e0138647
- Article: HUMAN REPRODUCTION. 2015;30(1):186-196
- Article: JOURNAL OF ADOLESCENT HEALTH. 2014;55(6):S48-S57
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All other publications
- Editorial comment: THE LANCET PLANETARY HEALTH. 2024;8(6):e347-e348
- Thesis / dissertation: 2023
- Conference publication: JOURNAL OF ADOLESCENT HEALTH. 2023;72(3):S48
- Editorial comment: BMJ GLOBAL HEALTH. 2022;7(6):e008520
- Review: PLOS ONE. 2022;17(8):e0273389
- Preprint: MEDRXIV. 2021;MEDRXIV
- Review: SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED INFECTIONS. 2021;97(6):402-410
- Preprint: RESEARCH SQUARE. 2021
- Preprint: SOCARXIV. 2021
- Review: SYSTEMATIC REVIEWS. 2021;10(1):37
- Preprint: RESEARCH SQUARE. 2021
- Review: SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH MATTERS. 2021;29(1):1996116-120
- Conference publication: TROPICAL MEDICINE AND INTERNATIONAL HEALTH. 2021;26:216
- Preprint: RESEARCH SQUARE. 2020
- Preprint: RESEARCH SQUARE. 2020
- Editorial comment: THE LANCET GLOBAL HEALTH. 2020;8(2):e159-e160
- Review: PLOS ONE. 2020;15(7):e0236316
- Conference publication: INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SEXUAL HEALTH. 2019;31:A312
- Conference publication: INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SEXUAL HEALTH. 2019;31:A243
- Conference publication: INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SEXUAL HEALTH. 2019;31:A199-A200
- Editorial comment: JOURNAL OF ADOLESCENT HEALTH. 2018;62(3):S3-S5
- Conference publication: EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH. 2017;27:344
- Review: PLOS ONE. 2016;11(6):e0157805
- Review: AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH. 2014;104(12):e23-e36
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Grants
- Swedish Research Council for Health Working Life and Welfare1 January 2024 - 31 December 2026
- Swedish Research Council1 January 2023 - 31 December 2025
- Swedish Research Council1 December 2022 - 30 November 2026
- Swedish Research Council1 January 2021 - 31 December 2023
- Swedish Research Council1 January 2020 - 31 December 2022
Employments
- Assistant Professor, Department of Global Public Health, Karolinska Institutet, 2020-2027
Degrees and Education
- Docent, Karolinska Institutet, 2023