Lydia Kwak

My area of research is intervention and implementation research within the
field of worker health, with a special focus on health promotion.
I am an associate professor in health promotion, head of the unit
Intervention and Implementation Research in worker health and assistent
director of Doctoral Education at IMM.

Master in Health Sciences, specialized in Health Education and Promotion and 

Doctoral degree in Health Sciences. Title: the NHF-NRG-In Balance-project: 

I am head of the unit for Intervention and Implementation Research in worker
health. My research activities are related to intervention and
implementation research in the field of worker health. This means that I
conduct research on how the health of the working population can be promoted
at the workplace and how ill-health can be prevented. This research
encompasses a broad range of research activities including gaining knowledge
on determinants of health and health behaviour through observational studies,
testing the effectiveness of methods targeting these determinants through
intervention studies, assessing the methodological quality of measurement
instruments through methodological studies and gaining knowledge on how
effective interventions can be implemented into practice through
implementation research studies.
In addition to being unit head, I also lead a research group. At the moment
we have several ongoing research-projects, including the following:
* A large implementation study financed by AFA-insurance, which is being
conducted among nineteen public primary schools in Sweden. The aim of the
study is to compare the effectiveness of a multifaceted implementation
strategy versus a single implementation strategy for implementing the
/Guideline for the prevention of mental ill-health at the workplace/ [1]
within schools. The effectiveness will be compared with regard to the
extent to which the recommendations are implemented within the schools
(implementation effectiveness) and with regard to social and
organisational risk factors for mental ill-health (intervention
effectiveness). ​​​​​​​
* Implementation of the Swedish /Guideline for Prevention of Mental
ill-health at the Workplace/: study protocol of a cluster randomized
controlled trial [2]
* Differences in how female and male elementary school teachers in Sweden
experience their work environment. [3]
* A study on teacher retention financed by FORTE. Teacher retention is a
persistent problem for many schools to date. In some municipalities in
Sweden as much as 15-25% percent of teachers quit every year, which
roughly corresponds to 5 to 10 teacher changes during high-school years.
While some turnover is considered necessary and healthy for schools, too
much instability is harmful for both students’ results and teachers’
health. There is therefore an urgent need to reduce teacher turnover. *The
aim of this study *is therefore to increase our knowledge on how teacher
turnover at schools can be reduced, and which specific strategies are
needed for schools to keep their teachers. Based on the results of the
project recommendations will be given to decision makers and schools
regarding how to minimize teacher turnover. The next step is to develop
and evaluate interventions aimed at preventing teacher turnover. None of
the research aims of this project have been previously financed.
You can read about some of the other research projects I am involved in here:
Preventing sickness absenteeism among employees with common mental disorders
or stress-related symptoms at work: Design of a cluster randomized controlled
trial of a problem-solving based intervention versus care-as-usual conducted
at the Occupational Health Services. [4]
Facilitators and barriers and ethical aspects in relation to cooperation with
the aim of increasing return to work among individuals with mental ill
health. [5]
Evaluation and implementation of highly challenging balance training in
clinical practice for people with Parkinson's disease: protocol for the
HiBalance effectiveness-implementation trial. [6]
[1] https://foretagshalsa.mynak.se/kunskapsomraden/riktlinjer-for-foretagshalsor/
[2] https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-019-7976-6
[3] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6982179/
[4] https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-017-4329-1
[5] https://medarbetare.ki.se/people/elisbj?_ga=2.68352018.2039568949.1566540740-114836326.1556870257
[6] https://bmcneurol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12883-017-0809-2

I am since 2011 course leader of the doctoral course Public Health
Intervention and Implementation research at Karolinska Institutet. Moreover,
I am course leader of the master course Introduction into program planning
and development. I give lectures for undergraduate and graduate programmes
on the topic of intervention and implementation research and supervise
master-and doctoral students.
For information on the doctoral course Public Health Intervention and
Implementation research 2019 [1]please click on the link of the course or on
the link of the doctoral program in Public Health Sciences [2]
[1] http://kiwas.ki.se/katalog/kursplan/show/1978?_ga=2.180969380.2039568949.1566540740-114836326.1556870257
[2] https://staff.ki.se/doctoral-programme-in-public-health-science-phsp