The department is organised into five research groups:
Public health epidemiology
Epidemiology is the study of the incidence and determinants of disease in population groups. In the Epidemiology research group, we focus on what lifestyle means for our health (especially smoking, physical activity and alcohol), we test health-promoting interventions, study inequality in health, and analyse the development and consequences of living with a disease. The research group also teaches at SDU in the fields of epidemiology, demography and statistics. Our desire in the group is to use effective and innovative epidemiological methods to respond to urgent public health problems.
The research group is led by Lau Caspar Thygesen.
Public health in Denmark
The research group for Public health in Denmark is working to describe the incidence and distribution of health and morbidity in the population based on quantitative epidemiological analyses. We conduct, among other things, population surveys, where data is collected on the basis of questionnaires, for use in state, regional and municipal planning and health monitoring, and for research and analysis purposes. The research group also takes part in a number of register research activities, which include both linking population surveys with health and other registers - primarily registers held by the Danish Health Data Authority and Statistics Denmark - and research based only on registers.
The research group is led by Christina Bjørk Petersen.
Public health in Greenland
The research group for Public health in Greenland is a multidisciplinary group with a background in sociology, public health sciences, medicine and global health. Our focus is on public health in Greenland, and we work with analytical epidemiology and register-based surveys, among other things. We are increasingly using methods within the fields of implementation and action research. We attach importance to anchoring our research locally and aiming for our research to be available at all levels.
The research group is led by Christina Viskum Lytken Larsen.
Geographical and register-based epidemiology
In the research group for Geographical and register-based epidemiology, we work with the incidence and spread of health and disease. In the field of geographical epidemiology, we focus on social and geographical variations in health and disease. We investigate, among other things, social and geographical inequality in cardiovascular disease and the importance of drinking water quality for health. Register-based Epidemiology uses national and Nordic registers to study health and morbidity in the population. We carry out epidemiological studies of, inter alia, the significance of congenital heart disease during and after pregnancy, and the connection between the use of specific drugs and the risk of various diseases. The research group has a background in statistics, epidemiology, geoinformatics, public health sciences, dentistry and nutrition, and also teaches on biostatistics and geographical epidemiology programmes.
The research group is led by Annette Kjær Ersbøll.
Epidemiology and health behavior
The research group is led by Janne Tolstrup.