Research at the National Institute of Public Health is organised into two research departments.
The Research Department for Health and Social Context
The Research Department for Health and Morbidity in the Population
Research Department for Health and Social Context
The department is organised into four research groups dealing with different aspects of social relationships and the importance of social factors for health. The main themes of our work are:
- The development of the health and wellbeing of children and adolescents
- Health promotion measures directed at children, adolescents, the unemployed and patients
- Mental health promotion aimed at the entire population as well as people with mental health problems
- Social inequality in health with particular focus on marginalised and vulnerable groups
- Organisational, relational and structural factors for health
Our research is application-oriented and interdisciplinary. We have an academic background in public health science, anthropology, sociology, medicine and philosophy. We combine theory with data collection and often design our studies so that they consist of combinations of context research, questionnaire and register research as well as intervention research.
Research Department for Health and Morbidity in the Population
The department is organised into five research groups, which generally work quantitatively and epidemiologically. We carry out interventions, register research and population surveys. The main topics in the department are:
- The distribution of health, morbidity and health behaviour among children, adolescents and adults
- The importance of lifestyle for our health (especially smoking, physical activity and alcohol)
- Social and geographical variation in illness
- Testing health-promotion measures aimed at children and adults
- Risk factors for and consequences of chronic disease
We conduct extensive population surveys (such as the Population Survey in Greenland, the Health and Morbidity Surveys, the School Children's Survey (HBSC), the Youth Profile and KRAM) for monitoring and research purposes. We carry out national public health studies for the entire population based on national registers. Our projects are carried out in the context of Denmark, Greenland and other Nordic countries. Our academic background includes public health, medicine, sociology, statistics and economics, among other disciplines.