Katarina Bälter

Katarina Bälter

Affiliated to Research | Docent
Telephone: +46852486821
Visiting address: ,
Postal address: C8 Medicinsk epidemiologi och biostatistik, C8 MEB II Bellocco, 171 77 Stockholm
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About me

  • I’m an Associate Professor at the Department of Medical Epidemiology and
    Biostatistics (MEB) at Karolinska Institutet and Professor in Public
    Health at the Division of Public Health Science at Mälardalens University.

    My background:

    * Visiting scholar at Stanford School of Medicine, 2015-16
    * Guest teacher at Williams College, MA, in 2013.
    * Associate Professor in Medical Epidemiology at KI 2004.
    * Post doc fellow at Harvard School of Public Health and Boston University,
    1998-9.
    * Ph.D. at Department of Oncology-Pathology, Karolinska Institutet, 1998.
    * Bachelor of Science, major in nutrition, University of Stockholm, 1993.

Research

  • My research focuses on sustainable lifestyles and health. This includes a
    lifestyle that promotes overall good health and quality of life but also
    contributes to a sustainable development. Sustainable development means that
    we can meet our needs in terms of living conditions and resource utilization,
    without jeopardizing future generations' ability to meet their needs. For
    example, climate change is a global problem and proactive steps are necessary
    and my research is therefore grounded in the sustainability goals by the
    United Nations, i.e. agenda 2030. Approximately 25 percent of the global
    greenhouse gas emissions originate from the production and distribution of
    food but different food products generate different amounts of emissions.
    Changes in food consumption and other lifestyle factors will be important
    to reduce emissions, but may also be of great public health relevance and
    thus, the overall aim of my research is to study the how a sustainable
    lifestyle may promote heath and reduced emissions of greenhouse gas emissions
    using epidemiological data.
    Selected projects:
    * A studies of sustainable food habits and health
    * Sustainable lifestyle and health among adolescents – the importance of
    socioeconomic factors.
    * E-epi: Development and validation of interactive web-based methods for
    assessing diet and physical activity in children, adolescents and adults.
    * The importance of modifiable lifestyle factors for prevention of prostate
    cancer as well as for survival after a prostate cancer diagnosis [1]. [2]
    * The effect of lifestyle factors for mammographic density and breast cancer
    risk.
    *Funding*
    My research is supported by grants from the Swedish Research Council, Formas,
    The Swedish Cancer Foundation, The Swedish Research Council for Health,
    Working life and welfare (Forte), and Riksbankens Jubileumsfond.
    *Supervision of masters and PhD students*
    I have been the main supervisor for more than 30 students doing their
    bachelor or master thesis, summer school project, or research preparatory
    course, including students from the Erasmus and Fulbright programs, as well
    as PhD students. I’m currently supervising the following PhD students:
    * Camilla Wiklund (co-supervisor)
    Past doctoral students (as main supervisor):
    * Maria Hedelin
    * Elinor Fondell
    * Elisabeth Möller
    * Sara Christensen [3]
    * Stephanie Bonn [4]
    * Thang Trinh (co-supervisor)
    * Camilla Sjörs
    *Other activities*
    * Expert and spokesperson on nutrition for the Swedish Cancer Foundation
    (since 2013).
    * Member of the expert panel on Diet and obesity at SBU – the Swedish
    Council on Health Technology Assessment – report published in 2013.
    * Member of the steering group for The Network for Epidemiology and
    Nutrition (NEON) in Sweden (since 2000).
    * Member of the board in the Association of Members of the Swedish
    Parliament and Researchers, RIFO (2001-04).
    * President of the Swedish association for nutritionists (2001-2).
    [1] https://ki.se/en/meb/lifestyle-factors-and-prostate-cancer
    [2] node/37312
    [3] http://ki.se/en/people/sachri
    [4] http://ki.se/en/people/stebon

Teaching

  • I have been responsible for teaching an introduction course in epidemiology
    for PhD students at KI and I have been a visiting teacher at Williams
    College, US. I have been the Director of Postgraduate studies at MEB, and the
    coordinator of the epi program for PhD students at KI. In addition, I have
    served as teacher for the VetU classes and coordinator for the degree
    projects at the medical program at KI.

Articles

All other publications

Grants

Employments

  • Affiliated to Research, Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet, 2025-2027

Degrees and Education

  • Docent, Karolinska institutet, 2004

Supervision

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