ENGAGE- Enacting health and change through everyday activity – Patomella group

Our research focuses on promoting communities and individuals' health, inclusion, and social justice. We want to contribute with knowledge on everyday activities as means and goals for developing and evaluating interventions. Our research creates conditions that contribute to increase equal health.

Our research 

  • Focuses on everyday activities as goals and means to promote health at individual, group and community level.
  • Considers that the activities a person does in their everyday life can take different forms depending on the person's situation and the conditions for engaging in an activity in different arenas (for example work, school, leisure), which also has implications for health.
  • Has the goal of contributing with knowledge about everyday activities as a basis for developing and evaluating efforts and interventions of great importance to society.
  • Has the goal of promoting conditions for equal participation in everyday and health-promoting activities for good health.

Our research is characterized by 

  • Interventions developed through the inclusion of and collaboration with people and groups at risk of physical or mental illness, including those in areas of low socio-economic status.
  • Interprofessional collaboration around common and socially relevant research challenges.
  • Innovative combinations of methods that include participatory methods.
  • Interventions developed to promote collaboration between relevant stakeholders (for example within Health care, the Social Insurance Services, municipalities, communities, schools, workplaces, patient organizations).

Publications

Selected publications

All publications from group members

Funding

Grants

Staff and contact

Group leader

All members of the group

Visiting address

Karolinska Institutet, Neurobiology, care science and society, Division of Occupational Therapy, Alfred Noblels Alle 23, Huddinge, 14183, Sweden

Team Prevention

Make My Day - everyday activities for stroke prevention

The most common cause of death in the world is cardiovascular disease, including stroke, despite the fact that most risk factors for stroke are modifiable and closely linked to our lifestyle habits. A major challenge lies in implementing and maintaining health-promoting lifestyles, and activities in everyday life can play a major role in this. Participation in engaging everyday activities (EEA), i.e. regular health-promoting and meaningful activities, can contribute to establishing a sustainable and healthy lifestyle. Primary care has the mission to offer and carry out preventive measures. Still, there is a great need for systematic, person-centered, and effective prevention strategies to address risk factors for stroke. The Make My Day project is conducted in close collaboration with primary care.

The research project addresses one of the greatest public health challenges of our time – the work to reduce risk factors for stroke and cardiovascular diseases – and at the same time highlights the complex challenge of integrating health-promoting lifestyle habits into daily life. The Make My Day intervention is based on the participants’ need for and engagement in health-promoting everyday activities, and is supported by an e-health innovation in the form of a mobile application. Participants are at high risk of stroke with modifiable risk factors, such as physical inactivity and unhealthy eating habits. Through person-centered goals, participants work to change lifestyle habits they have identified as important and that contribute to their stroke risk. The focus is on participation in engaging everyday activities (EVA) that promote new habits, improve health and reduce the risk of stroke.

Within the project, several pre-studies and a full-scale randomized trial have been conducted to evaluate the effect of the Make My Day intervention in reducing participants' high risk of stroke through participation in health-promoting and engaging everyday activities. The results show that the intervention not only reduces the immediate risk of stroke, but also has a positive impact on the participants' long-term risk profile. The study is completed and awaits publication. An earlier pilot study shows positive results.

We are currently recruiting for a study that addresses people who live in areas with low socioeconomic status, i.e. areas identified with a high stroke incidence. We want to adapt and adjust the Make My Day program so that it is relevant to all groups at high risk of stroke. In the project, we focus on equal health and collaboration with various actors in civil society.

Make My Day - Integrating return to work and family support as part of stroke prevention after a TIA

The research project explores how people who have had a TIA (Transient Ischemic Attack) return to work and support that is needed from family members. The aim is to develop and integrate these aspects into the stroke prevention program Make My Day.

Team leader

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Ann-Helen Patomella

Senior Lecturer/Occupational Therapist

Co-leaders

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Eric Asaba

Senior Lecturer/Occupational Therapist

PhD students

Team Mobility

Community mobility for people with and without disability

This is a collaboration between Karolinska Institutet and two Universities in Switzerland: the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW) and the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland. In the project we will investigate the community mobility of persons with and without disability in Switzerland and Sweden using a mixed methods approach. Community mobility is about navigating and engaging in activities outside the homes, for example using transportation for participating in social, cultural or other important events. We will interview persons with disability about the community mobility need and current situation, based on the results we will adjust a survey that will be distributed to both persons with and without a disability. We are currently recruiting. 

Driving assessment on-road and in driving simulator

Ann-Helen Patomella has been developing the assessment tool P-Drive (Performance Analysis for Driving Ability since her MSc studies and continued with her PhD. She has worked together with collaborators in Sweden, Australia, Switzerland and US for different versions of the assessment. There are several publications available on the psychometrics of the assessment tool.

Project leader

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Ann-Helen Patomella

Senior Lecturer/Occupational Therapist

Co-workers

Sara Frey

PhD student
Keywords:
Epidemiology Mobility Limitation Neurology Occupational Therapy Occupational Therapy Primary Health Care Primary Prevention Public Health, Global Health and Social Medicine Rehabilitation Medicine Rehabilitation Research Return to Work Show all
Content reviewer:
16-06-2025