Current projects
Existing knowledge indicates overrepresentation of migrants and ethnic minorities among those tested positive for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and/or hospitalised for COVID-19 compared with the majority population. Simultaneously, with these ethnic inequalities in COVID-19 we observe a disquieting number of patients with long-term health consequences of COVID-19 illness such as persistent fatigue, cardiopulmonary symptoms and neurological difficulties like depression, headache, difficulty with thinking and concentration. The ethnic inequities we observe in COVID-19 lead to the natural conclusion that migrants and ethnic minorities will be disproportionally hard hit by long-term effects of COVID-19 and that we should not overlook this problem.
The main purpose of the project is to examine whether disparities in incidence of COVID-19 diagnosis, symptoms, severity and healthcare utilisation exist between migrants/ethnic minorities relative to Danish-born individuals of Danish-born parents. The study is based on data from nationwide registers, clinical data and qualitative interviews among patients who either tested positive for COVID-19 and/or hospitalized due to COVID-19 from 2020 onwards in Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands.
Who is participating in the project?
This project is being implemented in a collaboration between the University of Copenhagen, Hvidovre Hospital, Stockholm University and Amsterdam Medical Centers, University of Amsterdam.
Who has funded the project?
The project is funded by the Novo Nordisk Foundation.
Expected start and end date:
The project started January 2022 and is expected to be completed July 2025.
Contact person
Marie Louise Nørredam, mano@sund.ku.dk
George Frederick Mkoma, george.mkoma@sund.ku.dk
Maria Ingeborg Goldschmidt, maria.goldschmidt@sund.ku.dk
The research environment REMAIN (Refugee Minors And INtegration) sets out to gain knowledge on strategies to improve the social integration of refugee minors with mental ill-health. REMAIN is organised around three work packages. In WP1, the relationship between parental trauma and their children’s mental health is explored. Specifically, how do parents’ mental health problems affect their children’s mental health and school performance? In WP2, refugee children with mental ill-health are followed during the transition to adulthood in terms of later use of psychiatric services, educational trajectories and labour market attachment. This work package includes comparative analyses that shed light on whether mental ill-health structures the life chances of refugee children in similar ways in Denmark and Sweden. MESU is particularly involved in this work package. WP3 consists of an intervention study, in which novel interventions that target refugee minors with mental ill-health are developed and tested.
More information about the project can be found here: REMAIN - Refugee Minors and Integration | Karolinska Institutet
Who is participating in the project?
The project is being implemented in collaboration with Karolinska Institutet, VU University Amsterdam and Medical University of Vienna. The project is headed by PI Ellenor Mittendorfer-Rutz from Karolinska Institutet, and from MESU Allan Krasnik and Marie Nørredam are both on the Steering Committee. Christopher de Montgomery is a postdoc on the project.
Who has funded the project?
The Swedish Research Council.
Expected start and end date:
The project began 1st January 2019 and is expected to be completed 31st December 2024.
Contact person
Christopher Jamil de Montgomery, cmon@sund.ku.dk
The overall aim of this project is to examine how the characteristics (personal history and health) of asylum seekers right upon arrival to Denmark are associated with the outcome of asylum decisions and with the integration and health of those that obtain a refugee status. To do so, we will use data from approximately 78,000 asylum seekers that attended the Red Cross’ health clinics in Danish asylum centres during the period 2007-2020. Data from asylum seekers’ health, migration experiences, socio-economic, and demographic characteristic will be merged with data from the Danish registries, and thus allow us to follow the educational outcomes, language acquisition, labour market participation, and health and use of healthcare services of those children and adults that obtain the refugee status. In addition, we will explore whether transmission (or lack of same) of health data collected in the asylum centres to the municipalities predicts post-resettlement health and labour market attachment.
Who is participating in the project?
Camilla Hvidtfeldt (project leader) at the ROCKWOOL Foundation Research Unit together with Assistant Professor, Maria Marti Castaner from the University of Copenhagen in collaboration with Jessica Carlsson Lohmann from the Competence Centre for Transcultural Psychiatry.
Who has funded the project?
Rockwool Foundation.
Expected start and end date:
The project starts September 2022 and is expected to be completed on August 2026.
Contact person
Camilla Hvidtfeldt, ch@rff.dk
Maria Marti, maria.castaner@sund.ku.dk
The aim of this project is to promote communication skills, diversity competence and ethical principles among students and their teachers in secondary and post-secondary medical vocational schools. Diversity competence enhances the ability of healthcare workers and organizations to effectively deliver healthcare services that meet the social, cultural and linguistic needs of patients. Promoting these skills, competences and principles will help future health care workers gain a deeper understanding of participatory medicine and efficiently engage with their patients. In order to achieve these purposes, a novel curriculum and course development for students and teachers are prioritized for the project, focusing on following initiatives: (i) The promotion of the development of students’ engagement with participatory medicine (ii) Enhancing diversity competence and communication skills in vocational medical education of both students and teachers (iii) The training of teachers to be able to prepare the students for a work environment in a novel framework in the medical field. The three initiatives will be included in an online course that will be available during and after the project. Additionally, there will be a pre-training survey to assess the knowledge, skills and awareness of the teachers and students. For follow-up, a post-training evaluation will include surveys and structured interviews with focus groups.
Who is participating in the project?
The project is carried out in a collaboration between 4 Croatian partners; University of Split, Fabula movens (SME), University of Pula and Medical High School in Pula, and Mihai Eminescu Bacău College in Romania and the University of Copenhagen. Janne Sørensen is the project manager and is responsible for the implementation of the project. Other participants in the project are Allan Krasnik, Marie Nørredam and Camilla Michaëlis.
Who has funded the project?
The project is funded by the Erasmus+ program.
Expected start and end date:
The project started February 2022 and is expected to be completed October 2023.
Contact person
Janne Sørensen, jans@sund.ku.dk
REFUDEPRE takes a mixed-methods approach to understand the burden of postpartum depression, and postpartum mental health broadly, on refugee women and their offspring and shed light on the role of home visiting programs lead by health nurses to support the mental health of refugees after giving birth.
Refugee women are at increased risk of developing it postpartum mental disorders, the most common being Postpartum Depression (PPD). When untreated, mental health disorders can interfere with the mother’s ability to care for her baby and thus impact the development of the child. However, no research to date has studied these links among refugees, who are also exposed to other social risk factors that affect both maternal and child health. Besides, few studies have investigated refugee mothers’ mental health needs after pregnancy, and evidence on psychosocial interventions that support such mental health needs is lacking. Building on the analysis of the Danish Child Health Database (Databasen Børns Sundhed), and qualitative interviews to refugee and health nurses participating in the innovative Sundhedsplejersker Styrker Integration, the Danish home visiting program for refugee families, I will be able to fill these gaps. Given the increased flow of refugees in Europe, results will be both academically relevant and informative to the design of public health programs and policies aimed at reducing mental health inequalities in refugee groups.
Who is participating in the project?
The project is led by Maria Marti Castaner, under the mentorship of Marie Nørredam and Sarah Fredsted Villadsen.
Who has funded the project?
Ex. The project is funded by The European Commission, under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship
Expected start and end date:
Ex. The project starts September 2020 and is expected to be completed on August 31, 2022
Contact person
Maria Marti Castaner, maria.castaner@sund.ku.dk
The population in Denmark is becoming more diverse which is also reflected among staff and students at the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences (SUND), University of Copenhagen. Academic staff encounters colleagues and students with many different backgrounds eg. socio-economic status, ethnicity, nationality, gender, sexualities. Diversity can be an advantage bringing forward new perspectives and boost innovation, but it can also cause friction and insecurity among staff and students. Therefore, the purpose of this project is to develop and pilot a training course aiming to improve the diversity competences including knowledge and awareness among the academic staff at SUND. Diversity competences aims to improve understanding, interaction and communication between people with different backgrounds. The topic will be approached with different didactic methods, which can spark reflection and discussion. The course builds on previous experiences with designing diversity competence training, but will also draw on the University’s experts within the fields of diversity, online and blended learning, teaching pedagogics and didactics.
The course is a blended learning course and consists of 4 modules focusing on 1) intercultural communication and interaction among colleagues (online module), 2) teaching of diverse students (online module), 3) My own role as a teacher (2 hour face-to-face workshop) and 4) handling dilemmas in teaching situations (1,5 hour face-to-face computer game workshop).
The course will be implemented in May 2024 where the online modules will be available from May 1st with two face-to-face workshops on May 21st and June 6th. Participation will be awarded with a certificate and will be approved by the University of Copenhagen as a pedagogical development activity.
Who is participating in the project?
The project is carried out in collaboration between the Danish Research Center for Migration, Ethnicity and Health, the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, the Center for Online and Blended Learning and Serious Games Interactive.
Janne Sørensen is the PI and can be contacted at jans@sund.ku.dk
Who has funded the project?
The Lundbeck Foundation
Expected start and end date
The project started September 1st 2023 and is expected to be completed on August 31, 2024.
Contact
Janne Sørensen (PI), jans@sund.ku.dk
The project is about Ukrainian refugees, forced to leave their motherland as a result of the Russian invasion.
In Denmark – nearly 39,000 individuals from Ukraine have been granted residency, so far, under the Danish Special Act (adopted on 16 March 2022), also known as the “Ukrainian law”, which grants temporary residence permits to displaced Ukrainian citizens and persons recognized as refugees from Ukraine.
The main aim of this project is to identify and understand the health and psychosocial needs of Ukrainian refugees, what factors are associated with such needs, and how they access and use healthcare in Denmark to inform the development of strategies that help them cope with postmigration stress and improve the quality of lives and integration into Danish society. The participation of a Ukrainian researcher (refugee and medical doctor) in the project is a potential advantage to explore questions from inside, taking the Ukrainian mentality into account as well as the culture and features of the Ukrainian healthcare system
Accordingly, we will investigate the following research questions:
- How do Ukrainian refugees experience their living circumstances, access to healthcare and integration in Denmark?
- What health and psychosocial needs experience Ukrainian refugees in Denmark?
- How their living circumstances and integration relate to their health and well-being (physical and mental)?
- From the perspective of Ukrainian refugees, what actions could foster their adaptation and wellbeing in Denmark?
We use a combination of quantitative (survey) and qualitative methods (workshop and individual interviews), grounded in participatory action research.
Who is participating in the project?
The project is carried out by Danish Research Center for Migration, Ethnicity and Health (MESU) at the University of Copenhagen. Postdoc Viktoriia Vereshchakina is responsible for the implementation of the project together with Professor Marie Nørredam and Assistant Professor Maria Castaner.
Who has funded the project?
The project does not have a source of funding. The project is possible thanks to SARU program, which allowed Fellowships for scholars at risk from Ukrainian universities.
Expected start and end date
The project started January 16, 2023 and is expected to be completed January 15, 2024.
Contact person
Viktoriia Vereshchakina, viktoriia.vereshchakina@sund.ku.dk