Karin Modig

Karin Modig

Senior Lecturer | Docent
Telephone: +46852480153
Visiting address: Nobels väg 13, 17177 Stockholm
Postal address: C6 Institutet för miljömedicin, C6 Epidemiologi Modig, 171 77 Stockholm
Part of:

About me

  • I finished my PhD at the Department of Public Health, Karolinska Institutet in Sep 2010. I did my postdoc at IMM and is currently Associate Professor in Epidemiology and senior Lecturer at the unit of Epidemiology at IMM. My research group, Ageing and Health, perform research about ageing, longevity and the health of the ageing population. I have worked for many years with the national population registers in Sweden and have an interest in the validity of these. I am a member of the steering group for SINGS (The Swedish INterdisciplinary Graduate School in Register-Based Research) and lecture about epidemiological methods and register based research both at graduate and post graduate level.
    I was appointed guest researcher at Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany between 2016-2019, and I still have a close collaboration with the institute and have a PhD student within the PHDS Academy held by Max Planck Institute for Demography.

Research

  • The overarching objective of my research is to comprehensively elucidate the determinants and consequences of increased longevity and assess the quality of extended lifespan. Our research encompasses methodological inquiries concerning the utilization of Swedish register data for the study of age-related illnesses. Recognizing aging as a multifaceted and cross-cutting concern, my research strategy incorporates close collaboration with clinicians representing diverse specialties, statisticians, and demographers. Our predominant methodology involves extensive quantitative analysis, characterized by longitudinal investigations and trend analyses. However, we also incorporate qualitative studies either to generate hypotheses or to further understand the findings observed from quantitative observational studies.

    I amcurrently main supervisor for PhD students Yuge Zhang https://ki.se/en/people/yuge-zhang and Anna-Kathleen Piereth https://ki.se/en/people/annakathleen-piereth. ;


    I amcurrently co-supervisor for PhD students:
    Eric Chen
    Hanna Bring

    Karolina Gustafsson

    Hedwig Widestadt


    I am currently supervisor of postdocs:
    Shunsuke Murata
    Clare Tazzeo

    Previous PhD students:

    Anna Meyer

    Katarina Greve
    Hanne Erliner

    Hanna Mogensen

    Korinna Karampampa

    Previous postdocs

    Marcus Ebeling

    Stina Ek

    Mozhu Ding

    Alexandra Wennberg

    Anna Meyer

Teaching

  • I see teaching and supervision as a natural and important part of being a researcher at a university. Teaching and course directing represents around 30% of my time. I have more than 700 lecture hours in total. In addition to this comes supervision of master students and PhD-students.
    I am currently primarily involved in two educational programs as course director and teacher, the Swedish INterdisciplinary Graduate School in Register-Based Research (SINGS) http://ki.se/en/education/swedish-interdisciplinary-graduate-school-in-register-based-research, and the master program in Public Health Sciences at KI https://education.ki.se/programme-syllabus/4FH19
    In SINGS I am co-director and a member of the steering committee which means that I take a large part in organizing and planning the research school, its courses, and content. I am the course director for three courses within the research school, “Using data from Swedish registers for research purposes”, “Analyses of bias” and “Longitudinal methods”, each 1.5 higher education credits. The main coordinator for SINGS is Anita Berglund, with whom I collaborate closely with.
    In the master program in Public Health I am course director of a 7.5 credit course in the Master in public health at KI, “Epidemiological Methods for studying determinants of Health”. This involves panning the course and setting up its syllabus and curriculum, co-ordinate the content of the course with the other courses in the program, give lectures, seminars and set up as well as correct the examinations. The course has around 50 international students every year.
    In addition to the above-described teaching activities I regularly lecture about epidemiology, study design, methods, registers and more at several educational programs. I also regularly supervise master students for their theses.
    Subject area competence: Epidemiology and epidemiological methods, Swedish registers and register based research, cohort studies, public health.

Articles

All other publications

Grants

  • Keeping frail older adults out of the emergency department – Exploring the roles of primary care professionals and opportunities for task reallocation
    Region Stockholm (NSV Projektmedel)
    1 January 2026 - 31 December 2028
  • Prevention of emergency visits among frail older patients in primary care - development of a complex intervention in Swedish healthcare (P)
    Centrum för innovativ medicin CIMED
    1 January 2025 - 31 December 2027
  • Swedish Research Council
    1 December 2024 - 30 November 2028
    Swedish registers are a unique and powerful resource, enabling efficient and cost-effective investigation of a range of research questions. The Swedish Interdisciplinary Graduate School in Register-Based Research (SINGS) is a comprehensive two-year programme focusing on methodological, practical, ethical, and legal aspects of using registers in research. It aims to deepen knowledge and enhance skills on effective use of registers in research, making it relevant to all quantitative disciplines. Open to doctoral students at any Swedish university, it includes seven core and nine elective course weeks, with students required to earn at least 12 credits. To further create a stimulating and international environment, it offers seminars on cutting-edge methodological topics. Karolinska Institutet coordinates the school, with participation from six other Swedish universities and two international collaborators. Since 2010, SINGS has had a crucial role in fostering the next generation of researchers. Seven cohorts of students have been admitted. More than 700 students and over 100 teachers from different universities and research fields have taken part. Eighty courses have been held. This updated version of SINGS builds on its success and includes new collaborators and educational activities on emerging topics, thus enabling the further development of the highest academic standards with a strong pedagogical, methodological, and interdisciplinary profile in register-based research.
  • Swedish Research Council for Health Working Life and Welfare
    1 January 2024 - 31 December 2026
    Research problem and specific questions: Fall injuries among older adults are one of few public health problems that have not decreased with better health care and lifestyles, the number of falls will instead increase with an ageing population. A fall injury often leads to loss of independence and reduced quality of life. In addition, one fall often leads to more falls, leaving a vulnerable group of patients with increasing difficulty maintaining their independence.  Prognosis after a fall injury likely depends on an accumulation of sociodemographic- medical- and social factors. A combination of factors that either makes an individual vulnerable or resilient after a fall injury. Despite this, we know very little about the types of fall injuries that lead to more, worse injuries. In addition, the research focus is on individual risk factors for poor prognosis, lacking a focus on healthy factors and a real-world perspective that acknowledges health complexity and synergy of multiple factors.The aim of this project is to 1) identify the types of fall injuries that affect different groups of older people and which injuries lead to more fall injuries, identifying patterns of factors that make an individual 2) extra vulnerable after a fall, and 3) more resilient, who despite a fall injury regain independence.Data and method: Using a combination of national registries and survey data, we can follow individuals over many years to study patterns of fall injuries but also resilience after a fall injury in terms of medical care, medications, and home care. Using data on medical- and socio-economic factors - as well as personality and health behaviors in a sample of the older population - we can also get a picture of what characterizes vulnerability and resilience.Relevance: Fall injuries are the main cause of years with disability among people over 70 years in Sweden. The economic costs are high, with a fall leading to a serious injury costing the society around 273 600 SEK/person. Thus, falls among older adults are a major public health problem that will increase in magnitude and cost in the future. Our project will provide evidence to improve the prognosis after a fall injury, which can benefit both the individual and society.Plan for project realization: The project will be carried out at the Unit of Epidemiology, IMM, KI. We will use advanced machine learning methods to answer the research questions in linked national registers. The main cost is personnel costs.
  • Swedish Research Council for Health Working Life and Welfare
    1 July 2023 - 30 June 2026
    Dementia is a major public health problem not only for affected individuals but also their families. In Sweden, care for people with dementia is regulated by national guidelines. However, previous research as well as an evaluation by the National Board of Health and Welfare have pointed to limited adherence to these guidelines with regards to both diagnostic processes and provided care. The National Board of Health and Welfare identifies several areas for improvement, two of which are addressed in this application: better conditions for people with dementia in primary care and a need for more qualitative data describing the content and quality of provided care.Primary care is often the first point of contact with health care and plays a key role both in the diagnostic process and in the provision and coordination of care for older people with dementia. Yet, there is little research on primary care for older people with dementia in Sweden. One reason is the lack of a primary care register at the national level.With the use of both quantitative and qualitative methods, this project aims to explore barriers to dementia diagnosis in primary care as well as the extent to which dementia is underdiagnosed in primary but also specialist care in different population subgroups. Furthermore, we aim to explore co-morbidity at the time of dementia diagnosis across the population and whether older individuals’ health is related to specified dementia diagnoses.Our project aims to examine to which extent people with dementia and their relatives have similar views on dementia care as care providers, specifically general practitioners, nurses, and home care staff. We will describe care trajectories for people with a diagnosis of dementia and how they vary across population groups. We know that family members play an important role in the care of older people. Therefore, we aim to highlight older people without close relatives and examine to which extent formal care for older people succeeds in compensating for the potential lack of informal support.The project is based on a large register database with national coverage for specialist care, and regional coverage for primary care. This is complemented by focus group discussions with healthcare providers, and individual interviews with people with dementia and their relatives. The research team includes a general practitioner, nurses, ageing epidemiologists, behavioral scientists and qualitative researchers.
  • Swedish Research Council for Health Working Life and Welfare
    1 January 2022 - 31 December 2024
  • Swedish Research Council
    1 December 2020 - 31 December 2022
  • Swedish Research Council
    1 December 2019 - 31 December 2023
  • The Ageing Population – explanations, consequences and future perspectives.
    Riksbankens Jubileumsfond
    1 January 2019 - 31 December 2019
  • Making the care process more effective and improving the prognosis among hip fracture patients.
    Family Kamprad Foundation
    1 January 2019 - 31 December 2022
  • Swedish Research Council for Health Working Life and Welfare
    1 January 2018 - 31 December 2020
  • Swedish Research Council for Health Working Life and Welfare
    1 January 2017 - 31 December 2019
  • Swedish Research Council for Health Working Life and Welfare
    1 January 2017 - 31 December 2022
  • Swedish Research Council for Health Working Life and Welfare
    1 January 2017 - 31 December 2019
  • Swedish Research Council for Health Working Life and Welfare
    1 January 2017 - 31 December 2019
  • Resebidrag: Deltagande i International Society for Intelligence Research Conference, Madrid, December 17-19, 2009
    Swedish Research Council for Health Working Life and Welfare
    1 November 2009 - 31 January 2010

Employments

  • Senior Lecturer, Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, 2023-

Degrees and Education

  • Docent, Karolinska Institutet, 2015
  • Degree Of Doctor Of Philosophy, Department of Global Public Health, Karolinska Institutet, 2010

Supervision

  • Supervision to doctoral degree

    • Karolina Gustavsson, Muti-omics of aging and risk for dementia, 2024-
    • Anna-Kathleen Piereth, The consequences of disease prevention for population-level trends in health and mortality in Sweden and other low-mortality countries, 2024-
    • Yuge Chang, Determinants of- and pathways to an exceptionally long life. Analyses of centenarians and non-centenarians in relation to biomarkers, health profiles and disease trajectories., 2023-
    • Eric Chen, How are heart failure patients diagnosed and treated in primary care? To what extent are treatment recommendations followed for older multi-diseased heart failure patients? A mixed-methods project in Swedish primary care, 2023-
    • Hanna Bring, Potentially preventable emergency department visits in frail older patients in Region Stockholm: trigger factors and variations between primary care practices, 2022-
    • Ehrlinder Hanne, Förmaksflimmer: Risker och vinster med antikoagulation hos äldre
    • Katarina Greve, Hip Fractures in an Aging Population
    • Yuge Zhang, Determinants of- and pathways to an exceptionally long life. Analyses of centenarians and non-centenarians in relation to biomarkers, health profiles and disease trajectories.

  • Supervision of postdoctoral researcher

    • Clare Tazzeo, 2025-

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