Centre for Health Equity Studies - CHESS

CHESS is a multidisciplinary research centre that was established in 2000 in collaboration between Stockholm University and Karolinska Institutet. At CHESS, researchers in sociology, psychology, political science and public health science work together on issues related to health inequality. Inequality in health refers to systematic differences in health and survival between individuals and between socially defined groups. Differences in living conditions as a result of upbringing, education, work, financial resources and foreign origin are examples of circumstances that are studied in relation to health inequality at CHESS.

CHESS’s main goal is to conduct and promote research on inequality in health and to spread knowledge about such research to the surrounding society. Another important mission for CHESS is to work towards a broad dialogue between social science and medicine and to act as a link in the collaboration between the Department of Public Health at Stockholm University and the Karolinska Institute in this research area. In addition to research, a main task for the centre’s researchers is to participate in the supervision and training of doctoral students.

CHESS is located on Campus Albano, Stockholm University, floor 5, building 4.

Organisation

The board of CHESS consists of the chairperson, the director and four other members. The members are appointed for three years by the President of Stockholm University, with the exception of the Chair, who is appointed by the President of Karolinska Institutet. The Board's task is to support and promote the Centre's activities in accordance with its current objectives, to monitor and support the Centre's collaboration with the Karolinska Institutet, to prepare research-related matters for the Department's Board of Directors, and to carry out external monitoring within the Centre's research area.

CHESS Board 2024

Chair

Marie Hasselberg, Professor of Public health epidemiology and Head of department at the Department of Global Public Health, Karolinska Institutet.

Marie Hasselberg

Director

Ylva Brännström Almquist, Professor of Public Health Sciences at the Department of Public Health Sciences, Stockholm University.

Ylva Brännström Almquist

Members

Janne Agerholm, assistant senior lecturer at the Aging Research Center (ARC), Karolinska institutet

Janne Agerholm

Renate Minas, professor at the Department of Social Work, Stockholm University

Renate Minas

Peter Skogman Thoursie, Professor at the Department of Economics, Stockholm University

Peter Skogman Thoursie

Staff Representative

Karl Gauffin, Associate professor at the Department of Public Health Sciences, Stockholm University.

Karl Gauffin

Research

Research conducted at CHESS you find by searching the publications database DIVA via our page Publications.

The centre´s research can be divided into four main areas:

1. Living conditions and health among children and young people

2. Early origins of adult disease and later life chances as well as intergenerational transmission of health and social risks

3. The importance of socio-economic conditions, working conditions, and welfare policies for health

4. Migration and health

The research in these areas covers both broad questions about longer chains of events and larger contexts, as well as more detailed questions about causal mechanisms. The focus thus ranges from description to explanations and on to policy and measures.

It is important that the research conducted at CHESS adapts to the changing world we live in. In recent years, we have seen an increased focus on issues related to migration, segregation and school conditions among the researchers at CHESS. In the light of the socio-demographic development in Sweden and in Europe, it is becoming more and more clear that individual dimensions of inequality (e.g. social class or country of birth) cannot be considered separately, but must be analyzed in relation to each other.

Intersectional perspectives can help us understand how these dimensions interact in relation to the development of health inequalities. In recent years, the covid-19 pandemic’s connection to the social, economic and health-related situation of various groups has emerged as a new and important research question at CHESS. From a public health perspective, it is important to underline the importance of the pandemic’s long-term consequences. In other words, the public health sciences’ work of analyzing the effects of the pandemic on school, work, welfare and care (as well as the related links to health inequality) has only just begun.