UCPH Preventive network for children's health
Preventive measures hold significant potential to improve children’s health when successfully implemented in young age groups. Health during childhood has implications for development and health over the course of life. Despite extensive research and dedicated efforts, achieving successful prevention and implementation for reducing social inequality has proven challenging. Through this network, we aim to establish an interdisciplinary approach focused on preventive measures for children's health and wellbeing. Our specific focus is on understanding the mechanisms driving social inequalities in children's health and directing preventive efforts towards reducing these disparities.
The Danish welfare model engages with families from pregnancy through to kindergartens and schools. However, access to quality services in all aspects is not equally distributed, and inequities are not sufficiently mitigated. We aim to study the interactions between the welfare state and families, from the relationships between frontline workers, parents, and children to the institutional settings and the policy landscape.
Policies and interventions operating at the state, regional, and municipal levels can all be considered structural prevention. However, we know that initiatives at each structural level affect children's lives differently. Recognizing the social determinants of health, organizational health literacy will be central to our research, with a focus on strengthening structural prevention, including systems around frontline workers to better meet the diverse needs of families. Additionally, we wish to explore the role of civil society and its potential to extend beyond what the welfare state can provide. In this effort, we will establish strong partnerships.
Actions related to health promotion and prevention can often be understood as social actions, and what works in one context does not necessarily have the same effect in another context. Therefore, prevention research must seek to understand complexity and be oriented towards investigating what works for whom and under what circumstances. In doing so, interdisciplinary collaboration is needed with the application of mixed and multiple methodologies. Thus, a key asset of the network is that we bring together research expertise in sport, exercise, dentistry, immunization, mental health, migration and social inequity with complex intervention methodologies.
Three research questions
Three general research questions will guide our work:
- How can national policies effectively support children’s mental wellbeing and reduce social inequality in health?
- How can collaborative efforts involving families, welfare institutions, and civil society reduce social inequality in children’s health and mental wellbeing?
- Can a strengthened intersectional approach to children’s health reduce inequalities, including intersections between ethnicity, gender, and social class?
Specific areas of interest
Specific areas of interest are:
- How can we reduce social inequity in publicly funded, free-of-charge preventive dental programs?
- How can we reduce social inequity in the use of childhood immunizations?
- How can we reduce inequity in children’s development and mental health in daycare and schools?
Members
- Network chair: Sarah Fredsted Villadsen, Associate Professor, Section of Social Medicine, Department of Public Health sfv@sund.ku.dk
- Christina Mandrup Jäderholm, Postdoc, Section of Environmental health, Department of Public Health jaderholm@sund.ku.dk
- Else Foverskov, Assistant Professor, Section of Social Medicine, Department of Public Health elfo@sund.ku.dk
- Glen Nielsen, Associate Professor, Section of Sport, Individual and Society, Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sport gnielsen@nexs.ku.dk
- Jannie Nielsen, Associate Professor, Section of Social Medicine, Department of Public Health nielsen@sund.ku.dk
- Johanne Smith-Nielsen, Associate Professor, Center of Excellency in Early intervention and Family Studies, Department of Psychology smith-nielsen@psy.ku.dk
- Maria Marti Castaner, Associate Professor, MESU Research Centre, Section of Health Service Research, Department of Public Health castaner@sund.ku.dk
- Nikoline Nygaard, Postdoc, Department of Odontology, University of Copenhagen nygaard@sund.ku.dk
- Ramune Jacobsen, Associate Professor, Department of Pharmacy, University of Copenhagen jacobsen@sund.ku.dk