Primary fields of research

Research in clinical, social and cognitive epidemiology with focus on the bi-directional association between cognitive ability and health as well as the relationship between somatic and mental disease including risk factors and consequences.

Teaching

Underviser i sundhedsdata på IT og sundhed.

PhD kurser i register-baseret social epidemiologi.

Vejleder for BA og KA studerende fra medicin, IT og sundhed og Folkesundhedsvidenskab.

Vejleder for PhD-studerende.

CV

Born

March 13, 1956  in Denmark.

Education        

MD from University of Copenhagen (UC), Denmark, 1981
Specialist in Public Health Medicine, National Board of Health, 1990
PhD, Faculty of Health Sciences, UC, Denmark, 1991
DMSc, UC, 1994

Employments last 10 years

2005-2007 Professor in epidemiology, Institute of Public Health,University of Southern Denmark

2007-2008 Professor in social epidemiology, Institute of Public Health,UC

2008-         Professor in clinical databases and consultant at Research Centre for Prevention and Health, Glostrup University Hospital

Selected professional affiliations                 

1992-1994        Chairman of the Danish Medical Association’s Health committee.

1994-2007        Scientific review board member, European Journal Public Health

1995-2001        Chairman of the Danish Epidemiologic Society.

1996-1998        Head of Department of Social medicine, UC 

1998-2013        Medical consultancy, Danish Data Archive.

2001-              Research leader for the Danish Metropolit birth cohort.

2004-              Member of the Ministry of Sciences Committee for Registers

2005-2012        Member of the Nordnet (Nordic Longitudinal Epidemiology)

2006-2013        Co-editor. Library for doctors, Danish Medical Association.

2007-              Co-leader of the Danish Ageing Research Centre.

2008-              Member of the steering committee for The Copenhagen Ageing and Midlife Biobank

2009-              Research leader at Research Centre for Prevention and Health

Review assignments and supervision

Scientific reviewer for the Danish Health Development Fund, Danish Heart Association, Swedish research Council for Work and Social science, Economic and Social Research Council, UK, Swedish Riksbanks Foundation, AERES, the Danish Velux foundation, karolinska Institute, the Research Council of Health (The Academy of Finland), and the Swedish Research Council for Health, work and welfare Committee for Public Health (FORTE). Since 2013 member of the Danish Medical Research Council and from 2016 of  PROCRIN and the Danish Medical Association’s Research Fund.

Scientific reviewer of more than 200 scientific papers for  30 different scientific journals (i.e. Am J Epidemiol, Archives Gen Psychiatry, BMJ, Circulation, JAMA, Lancet).

Review committee for 37 academic positions in Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Examiner of 36 phd.thesis and 2 doctor thesis at Universities in Denmark and Norway.

Supervisor of 4 current and 19 finalised ph.d.students

Honors and awards 

Codan Merit Award, Medical association of Codan Insurance and the Medical Society of Copenhagen for research achievements within social epidemiology, 2003

1st prize in Danish Cancer Society’s Research prize essay on Diet and Cancer, 1986.

Current research

Leader of a number of register-based projects with  focus on social and psychological consequences of chronic disease.

Leader of the Danish Metropolit cohort comprising 11,532 men born in 1953 (www.metropolit.dk)

Leader and founder of the Danish Consript Database containing information on height, weight, education and intelligence from session surveys of 728,160 men born from 1939 to 1959. The database is basis for studies of the influence of social and cognitive factors on health and aging through a lifetime