GRANTS Eva Andersson, Anna Dahlman-Höglund, Anna Grimby Ekman and Marianne Törner are to receive a total of almost SEK ten million from AFA to fund their research. Their respective projects will investigate whether hearing damage influences the effect noise has on cardiovascular disease, the risks of allergenic preservatives in paint, positive and negative factors associated with pain programs, and why there are far more workplace accidents in the construction industry in Sweden than in Denmark.
Eva Andersson, a docent in the field of occupational health and medicine, has been awarded SEK 2,733,000 to study the effect hearing damage and hearing impairment has on the relationship between noise and cardiovascular disease, and between noise and stroke.
The risk of suffering cardiovascular disease, which is the most common cause of death in Sweden, is influenced by an individual’s physical and psycho-social working environment. Research shows that noise can create both physical and mental stress, which may then damage the heart and blood vessels. Hearing damage is common, but there is not enough knowledge of how this affects the risk of suffering cardiovascular disease.
This research is expected to be completed in 2020 and provide more insight into the relationship between noise and cardiovascular disease, and into how to prevent impaired hearing due to high noise levels in the workplace.
Anna Dahlman-Höglund, a docent in the field of occupational health and medicine, has been awarded just over SEK four million to chart isothiazolinone exposure in the painting profession.
Professional painters use a large amount of water-based paints and wallpaper pastes that contain allergenic preservatives known as isothiazolinones. Painters who develop allergies are forced to change profession and experience problems in everyday life due to the substances also being found in products such as shampoo, dish-washing liquid and liquid soap. Until now, no studies have measured isothiazolinone levels in the air they breathe during their work in order to investigate the relationship between painters’ exposure to these allergens and eczema on their skin or in their respiratory passages.
This research project, which will see samples taken from around 50 individuals and 4000 people surveyed, is expected to be completed in 2020. It is expected to provide further insight into the effect of isothiazolinones on health, knowledge which may ultimately improve the risk assessments conducted in painters’ working environments.
Anna Grimby Ekman, a docent in the field of epidemiology, has been awarded SEK 1,160,000 for her project, which will identify positive and negative factors associated with pain programs using data from pain clinics in Frölunda, Kungälv, Borås and Angered, and from the Swedish National Registry for pain rehabilitation (NRS).
Chronic pain places a heavy burden on affected individuals, their employers, the healthcare system and society in general. The special pain programs commonly found at pain clinics in Sweden often involve treatment both in groups and individually, but there is a lack of knowledge concerning the factors that help or hinder the success of these.
This research project is expected to be completed in 2018 and provide greater insight into the factors that affect the results of pain programs, and into how to ensure patients are best prepared so that treatment is successful.
Marianne Törner, a researcher in the Department of Public Health and Community Medicine, has been awarded just over SEK 1.5 million for her project, which will investigate the different rate at which workplace accidents occur in the Danish and Swedish construction industries. She is going to examine differences at national level, at organizational level, and at group and individual level.
Far more workplace accidents occur in the building and construction industry in Denmark than in the Swedish equivalent. It is not clear why this is the case, so the study will need to compare the two countries in terms of occupational health and safety legislation, industry, company and training structure, and attitudes towards safety in the workplace and during vocational training.
The study is expected to provide a knowledge base that will help to increase safety in the building and construction industry, but also potentially be of use to other sectors also.
AFA will be providing a total of just over SEK 38 million in funding to 13 different occupational health and safety-related projects, which are all aimed at providing greater insight in this area, in different ways.
