Hugo Westerlund Professor

Hugo Westerlund is professor of epidemiology at the Stress Research Institute, Department of Psychology, Stockholm University; project leader of the SLOSH (www.slosh.se) cohort and former director of the national REWHARD research infrastructure consortium (www.rewhard.se). He investigates how social and psychological exposures in and outside of working life affect health, mortality and quality of life over the life course. A recurring theme has been labour market participation, with a main focus on ageing workers and retirement, and the conditions for and consequences of extended working life. More recently, he has also taken the initiative to expand SLOSH to include younger people who are followed from secondary school, through studies and into adulthood, which is particularly important given the high levels of self-reported stress and mental health problems among young people today.

Hugo has mainly worked with large, longitudinal cohort studies from several different countries, including the French GAZEL, British Whitehall II and the Swedish SLOSH studies. He has a large international network of leading social epidemiologists. He has also worked on projects on open-plan offices, illegitimate taskts, early life mental health, physical activity among the elderly, risk factors for sickness absence and presenteeism, and validation of questionnaires to assess the psychosocial work environment. An overall ambition is to provide better evidence regarding causal links between modifiable environmental exposures and health outcomes, with increasing consideration of moderating factors such as personality and genetics.