Daniel Falkstedt

Daniel Falkstedt

Principal Researcher | Docent
Telephone: +46852487506
Visiting address: Nobels väg 13, 17177 Stockholm
Postal address: C6 Institutet för miljömedicin, C6 Arbetsmedicin Falkstedt, 171 77 Stockholm

About me

  • I am a senior researcher and associate professor of public health science and
    conduct epidemiological research as related to occupations, working
    conditions, socio-economic factors, lifestyle, etc. The focus has been on
    cardiovascular diseases, mental illness including suicide, and exclusion
    from the labor market due to ill-health. I teach on theory and
    epidemiological methods in public health science. Currently, I am also
    responsible for an advanced-level course on work organization and health. I
    have examined doctoral students in public health science and, since several
    years, I am also involved in the Doctoral programme in Public Health Science
    at Karolinska Institutet.


    Associate professor (docent), Public Health Science
    PhD (Public Health Science/Occupational Medicine), Karolinska Institutet
    MSc (with a Major in Psychology), Stockholm University

Research

  • Principal investigator:

    A Sustainable Working Life for All - Challenges and Future Opportunities 
    (SWOP), a research program during 2022-2027 funded by Swedish Research
    Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare (Forte)/

    The occurrence of mental disorders across occupations and work environments 
    in Swedish males and females: A longitudinal perspective (funded by Swedish
    Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare [Forte])

    Project member:

    Can workrelated exposures during life explain the increasing social gradient in cardiovascular disease? (funded by Swedish
    Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare [Forte])

    Emotional demands at work, mental and cardiovascular health consequences and labor market exit – identifying a novel aspect of psychosocial work exposure for prevention (funded by KI/AFA)

    Social inequalities in health and labor market attachment among older 
    workers – the importance of childhood circumstances and physical and
    psychosocial work environments over the entire working life (funded by the
    Swedish Research Council [Vetenskapsådet])

Teaching

  • Current course leadership:

    Arbetsorganisation (Work organization), 7.5 hp (Magisterprogrammet i arbete 
    och hälsa)

    Other teaching: social epidemiology, life-course epidemiology; work, ageing, and retirement

    Previous course leadership:
    Theory of Science, 2.5 hp (Master's program in public health science)

Articles

All other publications

Grants

  • Swedish Research Council for Health Working Life and Welfare
    1 January 2024 - 31 December 2026
    Research problem and specific questionsDespite the overall decrease in cardiovascular (CV) mortality there is, especially among women, an increasing social gradient in Sweden. The explanation is not known. Our aim is to analyse to what extent this gradient can be explained by the increasingly unsecure labour market. The research questions are: How large a proportion of the effect of education on CV health is mediated through weak labour market attachment (LMA, unemployment and precarious employment)? What are the other possible work-related mechanisms?Data and methodFour life-course cohorts, born 1965 and 1973, will be used. Two of them are based on extensive register data about all Swedish inhabitants. Two are based on repeated questionnaires and extensive register data on all school-leavers from grade 9, in a middle-sized town. One contains repeated clinical data for 40 years. Data on exposure to LMA are available from school to midlife. Incident CV diagnoses and metabolic risks will be measured around age 56 and 51. All cohorts will be controlled for reverse causation and other confounders.While the register cohorts are complete and provide power and national representativity, the school cohorts provide rich data of high validity for analysing mechanisms and clinical outcomes. A qualitative study about possible mechanisms will be performed among those with highest risk of weak LMA who have been followed during 40 years with interviews.Sociatal relevance and utilisationElimination of avoidable health inequalities is a major goal in the Swedish public health policy. To reach the goal, knowledge is needed about the mechanisms behind. The increasingly insecure labour market is our focus, a priority also in policies around EU. Our results can be used in health promotion and by work environmental actors to support targeted interventions aiming at improved equality in health and sustainable work conditions during life.Plan for project realisationRegister update will be made of one school cohort. Advanced mediation analyses of work conditions will be made for the educational gradient in CV health, using latest methods for selecting confounders.  Several mediators can be included at the same time, so the effect of structural factors on health behaviour can be analysed. Follow-up interviews will be performed with the early unemployed group. The theoretical development aim at developing a working life-course theory. The budget cover salaries and register updates.
  • Swedish Research Council for Health Working Life and Welfare
    1 December 2023 - 30 November 2024
  • Swedish Research Council for Health Working Life and Welfare
    1 July 2022 - 30 June 2025
  • Swedish Research Council for Health Working Life and Welfare
    1 November 2021 - 31 October 2027
    The retirement age is being raised gradually to counteract the financial consequences of an increasingly older population. However, with increasing age, and in particular after 50 years of age, an increasing number of persons are excluded from the labour market due to health problems. There are also increasing difficulties for young people and people in marginalized labor market positions to establish in the labor market. The research program addresses major challenges to create opportunities for a sustainable working life for all groups on the labor market by strengthening and updating the research on risk factors for poor health, and labor market marginalization and exclusion over the life-span among young, middle aged, and older male and female workers.The aims of the program are to extend knowledge on risk factors for labor market marginalisation and exclusion over the life course (WP1-3), and to identify policies and measures at workplaces that support a long working life (WP4). In four work packages we will study:WP1. Effects of long-term and accumulated poor working conditions on preterm labor-market exit, and potentially risk-reducing effects of occupational change and reduced occupational exposure WP2 Working-life expectancy among different occupational and socioeconomic groups WP3. Determinants and consequences of labor market marginalization over the life courseWP4. Work organizational structures promoting a sustainable working life for all The program is based on research and research collaborations that we have been involved in for many years, in an established environment now under expansion and development. The research team consists of both established and junior researchers from Sweden, the Netherlands, Norway, and the USA. A large, compiled register-based cohort (SWIP) that includes the entire Swedish population, born around 1990 or earlier, will be used in WP1-3. Data from surveys and qualitative interviews will also be collected (WP4).
  • Swedish Research Council for Health Working Life and Welfare
    1 July 2019 - 30 June 2022
  • Swedish Research Council for Health Working Life and Welfare
    1 October 2017 - 30 September 2019
  • Swedish Research Council for Health Working Life and Welfare
    1 January 2016 - 31 December 2018
  • Postdoctoral contribution: Epidemiological studies of childhood social conditions as determinants of behavioral risk factors...
    Swedish Research Council for Health Working Life and Welfare
    1 January 2012 - 31 December 2013
  • Resebidrag: 16th European Conference of Public Health(EUPHA), 'Health and innovation in Europe', 6-8 November, 2008, Lissabon
    Swedish Research Council for Health Working Life and Welfare
    1 November 2008 - 31 December 2008

Employments

  • Principal Researcher, Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, 2021-

Degrees and Education

  • Docent, Karolinska Institutet, 2019
  • Degree Of Doctor Of Philosophy, Department of Global Public Health, Karolinska Institutet, 2010

News from KI

Events from KI