Research results
Since 2018, data from REWHARD has been used in more than 400 scientific articles. Below is a selection of recent publications from our four nodes. You will also find links to research news and additional publication lists.
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Selected research news
Below is a selection of news articles about research based on data from REWHARD.
Structures rather than individual ambitions influence women’s leadership motivation
Clara Plückelmann’s research shifts the focus from individual shortcomings to the structural and cultural factors that influence who is seen – and sees themselves – as having leadership potential.
Published in March 2026.
Five years after the pandemic – are we better off being able to work from home?
The pandemic fundamentally changed working life and made remote working a natural part of many white-collar professions. But how did it actually affect our mental well-being?
Published in February 2026.
Traumatic brain injury linked to long term risk of work disability
A Swedish study, recently published in the scientific journal Neurology, has found that individuals who have experienced a traumatic brain injury are more likely to face periods of work disability that can last for up to five years following the injury.
Published in February 2026 on the Karolinska Institutet website.
Office design affects both the working environment and well-being
The office is more than just a place to work – it shapes how we collaborate, enjoy ourselves and feel. Research from KTH and the Stress Research Institute now shows that the physical environment plays a crucial role in the working environment and emotional health.
Published in February 2026 on the KTH website.
Do winter weather conditions affect anxiety?
While weather and climate have been linked to mental health outcomes, research on winter conditions and anxiety remains limited. A new study from Sweden examines whether wintertime meteorological factors influence anxiety symptoms later in the year.
Published in February 2026.
Workplace bullying Linked to Use of Antidepressants
Being bullied at work doesn’t just make people miserable in the moment – it may also push them toward needing medical treatment for mental health problems. A new study in Public Health Sciences from Stockholm University suggests that employees who are being exposed to bullying in the workplace are more likely to start treatment with psychotropic medication, particularly antidepressants, within just two years.
Published in January 2026.
The majority stay active in the labour market after depression
Most people who have been on sick leave for depression maintain a long-term labour market attachment, but some groups risk being marginalised. This according to a study led by Gerda Stutaite based on data from REWHARD.
Published in June 2025.
Education and place of residence politically divide young people
Education level and urban versus rural residence increasingly influence young people's likelihood of supporting radical right-wing parties, according to a new doctoral thesis by Amanda Almstedt Valldor, PhD candidate in sociology at the Swedish Institute for Social Research (SOFI), Stockholm University.
Published in April 2025.
Jobs Have Gotten Better – But Stress Is on the Rise
Job quality in Sweden has improved significantly over the past 50 years, but at the same time, workplace stress has sharply increased. This is shown in the doctoral thesis by sociologist Edvin Syk, presented at the Swedish Institute for Social Research (SOFI), Stockholm University.
Published in April 2025.
New report about the impact of the pandemic on the work environment
A report from the Swedish Agency for Work Environment Expertise examines how the work environment changed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The report is based on data collected before, during and after the pandemic. The results take different factors in the work environment and work-life balance into account for different groups in the Swedish labour market.
Published in December 2024.
Nature as a mental health resource
In his doctoral thesis, Yannick Klein has investigated the relationship between nature exposure and mental health in adults in Sweden, both before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. His studies shows that both active and passive exposure to nature have positive effects on mental health.
Published in September 2024.
Bullying in the workplace increases the risk of sick leave
People who are subjected to bullying in the workplace run about a 30 percent increased risk of being on sick leave for mental illness. This is shown by a study from the Department of Public Health Sciences and the Stress Research Institute, both at Stockholm University, and Karolinska Institutet.
Published in March 2024.
How are children influenced by their parents’ separation?
What are the circumstances that make some children more resilient to a parental separation than others? A new dissertation in sociology from Stockholm University investigates the heterogeneity in children’s outcomes after a parental separation. Among other things, the studies show that children with separated parents, living in shared parental residence, are doing nearly as well as children whose parents stay together.
Published in March 2023.
Selected publications from our nodes
Below is a selection of the latest publications for each node.
LNU – five selected publications
Boye, K. (2025). Paid leave to care for sick children – the limitations and opportunities at work. Community, Work & Family, 28(3), 337-362. doi: 10.1080/13668803.2023.2295229
Eyjólfsdóttir, H. S., Agahi, N., Fritzell, J., & Lennartsson, C. (2022). Physical functioning as a predictor of retirement: Has its importance changed over a thirty-year period in Sweden? European Journal of Ageing 19, 1417-1428. doi: 10.1007/s10433-022-00725-y
Mood, C., & Kjellsson, S. (2025). Divergent incomes, divergent lives? A multidimensional assessment of disparities in the level of living during Sweden’s income equality U-turn, 1968–2010. Mens & Maatschappij, 100(2), 179-200. doi: 10.5117/MEM2025.2.004.MOOD
Syk, E. (2022). Development of job quality in Sweden 1968–2010. Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, 82, 100745. doi: 10.1016/j.rssm.2022.100745
Witteveen, D., & Westerman, J. (2023). Structural change shapes career mobility opportunities: An analysis of cohorts, gender and parental class. Work, Employment and Society, 37, 97-116. doi: 10.1177/09500170211044305
SLOSH – five selected publications
Magnusson Hanson, L. L., Nyberg, A., Mittendorfer-Rutz, E., Bondestam, F., & Madsen I. E. H. (2020). Work related sexual harassment and risk of suicide and suicide attempts: prospective cohort study. British Medical Journal (BMJ), 370, m2984. doi: 10.1136/bmj.m2984
Nyberg, S. T., Fransson, E. I., Heikkilä, K., Ahola, K., Alfredsson, L., Bjørner, J. B., Borritz, M., Burr, H., Dragano, N., Goldberg, M., Hamer, M., Jokela, M., Knutsson, A., Koskenvuo, M., Koskinen, A., Kouvonen, A., Leineweber, C., Madsen, I. E. H., Magnusson Hanson, L. L., Marmot, M. G., Nielsen, M. L., Nordin, M., Oksanen, T., Pejtersen, J. H., Pentti, J., Rugulies, R., Salo, P., Siegrist, J., Steptoe, A., Suominen, S., Theorell, T., Väänänen, A., Vahtera, J., Virtanen, M., Westerholm, P. J. M., Westerlund, H., Zins, M., Batty, G. D., Brunner, E. J., Ferrie, J. E., Singh-Manoux, A., & Kivimäki, M., for the IPD-Work Consortium. (2014). Job strain as a risk factor for type 2 diabetes: A pooled analysis of 124 808 men and women. Diabetes Care, 37(8), 2268-75. doi: 10.2337/dc13-2936
Platts, L. G., Sacco, L. B., Hiyoshi, A., Westerlund, H., Cahill, K. E., & König, S. (2023). Job Quality in the Late Career in Sweden, Japan and the United States. (2022). Research on Aging, 45(3-4), 259–279t. doi: 10.1177/01640275221075985
Raza, A., Partonen, T., Magnusson Hanson, L. L, Asp, M., Engström, E., Westerlund, H., & Halonen, J. I. (2024). Daylight during winters and symptoms of depression and sleep problems: a within-individual analysis. Environment International, 183:108413. doi: 10.1016/j.envint.2023.108413. First published online 2023 Dec 30.
Xu, T., Magnusson Hanson, L. L., Lange, T., Starkopf, L., Westerlund, H., Madsen, I. E. H., Rugulies, R., Pentti, J., Stenholm, S., Vahtera, J., Hansen, Å. M., Virtanen, M., Kivimäki, M., & Rod, N. H. (2019). Workplace bullying and workplace violence as risk factors for cardiovascular disease: a multi-cohort study. European Heart Journal, 40(14), 1124-1134. doi: 10.1093/eurheartj/ehy683
IMAS – five selected publications
Cybulski, L., Pettersson, E., Alexanderson, K., & Farrants, K. (2025). Associations between diagnoses linked with adverse COVID 19-related outcomes and sickness absence due to COVID 19 or COVID 19 like diagnoses: a prospective Swedish cohort study of 292,274 blue collar workers in the retail and wholesale industry. European Journal of Public Health, 35(6):1300-1306. doi: 10.1093/eurpub/ckaf177
Hamina, A., Pinzón Espinosa, J., Taipale, H., Schneider Thoma, J., Radua, J., Efthimiou, O., Cardoner, N., Correll, C. U., Fusar Poli, P., Mittendorfer Rutz, E., Penninx, B. W. J. H., Ruhe, H. G., Tanskanen, A., Vinkers, C. H., Leucht, S., Vieta, E., Cipriani, A., Tiihonen, J., & Luykx, J. (2026). Representation and outcomes of individuals with major depression in routine care who are ineligible for randomized controlled trials: a nationwide register-based study. World Psychiatry, 25(1):117–124. doi: 10.1002/wps.70013
Klang, A., Molero, Y., Bergström, J., Mittendorfer Rutz, E., Oldenburg, C., & Rostami, E. (2026). Five-Year Follow-Up of Work Disability After Traumatic Brain Injury. Neurology, 106(5):e214674. doi: 10.1212/WNL.0000000000214674
Stutaite, G., Mittendorfer Rutz, E., Helgesson, M., Kautzky, A., Finnes, A., & Gémes, K. (2025). Working life patterns after sickness absence due to depression: A 15-year register-based prospective cohort study. Journal of Affective Disorders, 379:822–834. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2025.03.073
Virtanen, M., Gémes, K., Farrants, K., Bergström, J., Gustafsson, N., Peutere, L., Mittendorfer Rutz, E., & Alexanderson, K. (2026). Labour market patterns among women and men following the uptake of their first parental leave benefit in Sweden. Scientific Reports, 16(1):2595. doi: 10.1038/s41598-026-35960-1
STODS – five selected publications
Wang, M., Raza, A., Narusyte, J., Silventoinen, K., Böckerman, P., Svedberg, P., & Ropponen, A. (2023). Family-Related Life Events as Predictors of Labor Market Marginalization Trajectories: A Cohort Study of Swedish Twins. Journal of occupational and environmental medicine, 65(8), 627-634. PMID: 37143233, PMCID: PMC10417248. doi: 10.1097/JOM.0000000000002869
Alaie, I., Svedberg, P., Ropponen, A., & Narusyte, J. (2023). Associations of Internalizing and Externalizing Problems in Childhood and Adolescence With Adult Labor Market Marginalization. JAMA Network Open, 6(6), e2317905. PMID: 37289452, PMCID: PMC10251215. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.17905
Kärkkäinen, S., Bergström, J., Ropponen, A., Wang, M., Narusyte, J., & Svedberg, P. (2023). Sickness absence transitions among Swedish twins with back, neck or shoulder pain and common mental disorders applying a multi-state approach. Scientific Reports, 13(1), 10520. PMID: 37386053, PMCID: PMC10310811. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-37572-5
Ropponen, A., Bergström, J., Narusyte, J., & Svedberg, P. (2025). A life course study of genetic and environmental influences on sustainable working life. PLoS ONE, 20(2): e0317675. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0317675
Narusyte, J., Ropponen, A., Mittendorfer-Rutz & E., & Svedberg, P. (2020). Shared liability to pain, common mental disorders, and long-term work disability differs among women and men. Pain, 161(5), 1005-1011. PMID: 31977936, PMCID: PMC7170444. doi: 10.1097/j.pain.0000000000001787
Publication lists
Below are links to lists of publications based on data from REWHARD.
Last updated: 2026-03-17
Source: REWHARD