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Topics: Social issues

  • Important to involve both parents in breastfeeding

    The most important support person for women to succeed in their ambition to breastfeed is the new mother’s partner. The partner also needs to be included through more support from healthcare professionals. For single mothers, alternative solutions must be found. “Single people are a vulnerable group and need other types of support," explains researcher Ingrid Blixt.

  • Genes influence whether infants prefer to look at faces or non-social objects

    Whether infants at five months of age look mostly at faces or non-social objects such as cars or mobile phones is largely determined by genes. This has now been demonstrated by researchers at Uppsala University and Karolinska Institutet. The findings suggest that there is a biological basis for how infants create their unique visual experiences and which things they learn most about.

  • Violence against female politicians disrupts democracy

    Leading female politicians are more exposed to violence every year, than their male colleagues. The gender gap in targeting increases with the level of power: the higher up in the political hierarchy a person is, the greater the difference between women and men. Violence against politicians disturbs the functioning of democracy, is the conclusion in a new doctoral thesis in political science.

  • Hand-wringing characterised debate around begging

    It was the inability of both the political right and left to see and take responsibility for the systemic failures of the welfare society that led to the so-called “begging debate” in the early 2010s. This inability meant that they gave a free pass to the Sweden Democrats, who were alone able to formulate both the problem and their solution.These are some of the conclusions in a new monograph.

  • New study links contraceptive pills and depression

    Women who used combined contraceptive pills were at greater risk of developing depression than women who did not, according to a new study. The pills increased women’s risk by 73 per cent during the first two years of use. “Since we only investigated combined contraceptive pills in this study, we cannot draw conclusions about other contraceptive options", says leading researcher Uppsala University

  • “You throw up, then you cough, then you feel better or die”

    Detailed images of illness, death and cancelled activities; these were some of the common themes of children’s drawings during the COVID-19 pandemic. A new study from Uppsala University, in which researchers studied 91 drawings made by children aged between 4 and 6, shows that the pandemic affected the children significantly and that they had extensive knowledge about the disease.

  • Early tastings shorten breastfeeding

    The earlier infants begin to taste small samples of solid food, the earlier they eat more food and stop breastfeeding. This is shown in a new study from Uppsala University and Sophiahemmet University, in which the mothers of 1,251 infants from all over Sweden participated. Almost half of the infants received tastings at the age of four months.

  • The vulnerability of surrogate mothers in a global market

    A new dissertation on surrogacy highlights Thai women's experiences of having acted as surrogate mothers. The dissertation shows the women's vulnerability in a global surrogacy industry, but also provides a more nuanced picture of what makes women seek surrogacy and how they relate to the process.

  • Transforming space and society in Kiruna

    When the Swedish government and LKAB first shared responsibility for developing Kiruna a hundred years ago, they focused mostly on practical issues. How does one build a city in a “desolate wilderness”? Since 2004, these ideas have taken on new meaning when examining what it means to transform a city to continue mining. This is the focus of a new thesis in cultural anthropology.

  • Small measures can be a big help for children of mothers with depression

    Several new studies among Syrian refugee families in Turkey and families with infants in Sweden and Bhutan show that children of mothers in poor mental health risk falling behind in their cognitive development. However, very small changes can suffice to break this correlation and enable the children to return to their normal developmental level. The solutions where the same in all three countries

  • ​Parental support crucial for better school performance

    “The school system is not fulfilling its compensatory mission. Instead, it is entrenching the inequalities of life opportunities among children and youth, and social reproduction and segregation,” says Göran Nygren, researcher at the Department of Cultural Anthropology and Ethnology at Uppsala University, who recently defended his thesis.

  • Socioeconomic deprivation modifies genetic influence on higher education

    A comprehensive study from Uppsala University demonstrates that socioeconomic deprivation modifies genetic effects on higher education and abstract reasoning. The paper illustrates how genes play a greater role in educational attainment in more socioeconomically deprived regions of the United Kingdom. The study was recently published in the American Journal of Psychiatry.

  • Swedish workers among Europe’s best-paid in late 1800s

    In 19th-century Sweden, workers’ wages rose faster than in other European countries. By 1900, they were among the highest in Europe, and the steepest rise of all had been for those who earned least. This is shown by new research at Uppsala University: a study published in The Journal of Economic History.

  • Children’s unique urban health challenges timely topic at Uppsala Health Summit 2019

    Densification of cities causes less space for spontaneous play leading to negative effects on children’s health. Even though the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child has been ratified by most countries, the child perspective is often missing in the planning process. The high-level international meeting Uppsala Health Summit is focusing on urban planning from a child health perspective.

  • Children’s Health in Cities in Focus at Uppsala Health Summit

    ​By 2050, around 70 per cent of the world’s children will live in cities. During the high-level meeting Uppsala Health Summit this autumn, international experts from different sectors will gather to discuss how to plan cities and strengthen public health strategies to better care for children’s health and wellbeing in all parts of the world.

  • World Cancer Day 2018: Better cancer care in focus at Uppsala Health Summit 2018

    Thanks to advances in treatment options, the chances of surviving cancer are better than ever before. However, cancer incidence is increasing and new forms of therapy are expensive. As a result, resource management and priority setting face major challenges. How can we ensure equitable access to diagnosis and treatment? This topic is the focus of Uppsala Health Summit 2018, “Care for Cancer”.

  • ​Group interventions reduce post-traumatic stress symptoms among unaccompanied refugee minors

    Participation in a post-traumatic stress group can be an effective help for unaccompanied refugee minors. In a new study, one in five young people completely recovered from their symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder and many reported improved symptoms after having participated in a group. The study from Uppsala University is the first in Scandinavia using the Teaching Recovery Techniques.

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