“The goal is to identify those who might need help at an early stage”
Pernilla Åsenlöf, professor at the Department of Women's and Children's Health, leads a large study in which 9,000 young people and adults are to be followed for at least two years. Photo: Mikael Wallerstedt
What is the real state of mental health among young people in Sweden? Researchers will now try and find out by examining patterns and variations in young people’s mental health over time in a large national study. 9,000 young people and young adults across the country have been invited to participate. The study is being led by Pernilla Åsenlöf, Professor at the Department of Women's and Children's Health.
What will your study involve?
“As a first step, we will study whether it is at all possible to get young people to participate in the study and answer many questions about their lives, how they are feeling, what they spend their days doing and how meaningful it is. They will also be asked via a mobile app to take behavioural tests to see if their reactions – and how they respond to them – play a role in their mental health. The app also assesses both how and the extent to which they move around and what their mobile phone use is like throughout the day. A small proportion will also be asked to take their own blood sample and send it to us.
Our aim is to identify those who may need help and support at an early stage to avoid or reduce mental health problems. In the long run, we assume that different types of intervention will be needed from schools, healthcare and other services across society. The study is expected to provide a scientific basis to better understand what is needed, when actions should be taken, and who needs them.”
Tell us about the app you are using.
“We have developed a mobile application together with a reference group consisting of young people. The app is a modern and hopefully appealing way to gather different types of data from the target group.”
What is your target group?
“Our target group is young people in Sweden aged between 15 and 29. We are particularly interested in the situation of young women, who are particularly affected by anxiety, worry and stress. However, we also expect to find interesting patterns among young men that may not have been recognised before. One important aspect is that we do not want to define mental health as a primarily medical problem in young people, rather gain a better understanding of other factors in society and this contemporary period that could be remedied.”
How long will you monitor the participants?
“In the first phase, we will monitor the participants for two years. However, we hope to be able to continue and expand the study into what is known as a lifetime cohort, through which we want to monitor young people from even earlier years and onwards through life. Before doing so, we need to know how it works and what might need to be improved in the organisation to make participants willing to stay involved over a long period. We also need substantial and long-term funding, which we do not have at present.”
Åsa Malmberg