Health Promotion
Health promotion research explores how individuals, families, schools, organizations and society can create conditions that support health, well-being and informed health decisions throughout the life course.
We are curious about how health actually takes shape in everyday life — around the kitchen table, in a classroom, inside an organisation, and across a whole population. The Health Promotion research area focuses on understanding and strengthening factors that support health and well-being across the lifespan. Our research looks at how individuals, families, communities and society can be supported to make healthier and more sustainable choices, and at how health literacy grows in the places where people really live, learn and work. At the moment, our ongoing research focuses on home–school health collaboration, adolescent wellbeing through the HBSC study, and population health choices. Our new area of interest is organisational health literacy.
What draws us to this field is the range of scale it lets us work at: from a single family’s everyday habits, to a school’s collaboration with parents, to national-level research. We combine quantitative and qualitative research, work in national and international multidisciplinary teams, and build our studies together with families, schools, professionals and organizations. Our research is driven by a shared commitment to understanding how health and well-being can be strengthened throughout life.
Research areas
Head of the Programme
I am delighted that you have found your way to our research programme. As Professor of Population health choices and health promotion, I am passionate about health literacy and health behaviors among children and adolescents, as well as the roles and responsibilities of the home and school in supporting children’s health literacy. Together with our researchers, students, and collaborators, we explore how health can be promoted in different settings and populations, from schools to families and organizations. I hope our website provides you with insights into our ongoing research and inspires new ideas for collaboration and health promotion.