Our research is closely aligned with practice and societal needs, and spans the entire life course – from children, adolescents, and families to older adults living with chronic health conditions.
A core priority is to strengthen health literacy in the population, particularly among people in vulnerable life situations, to help reduce social health inequalities.
Our aim is to generate knowledge that enables more people to live good lives – regardless of function, life situation, or background.
Our work addresses diverse patient and service-user groups across primary and specialist health services. We collaborate closely with users of health services to ensure that the knowledge we develop is relevant and meaningful to those it concerns.
Heads of research group
Members
More about the research group
Our approach
Quality of life is a complex phenomenon, and our research therefore has a broad scope. Drawing on Bert Spilker’s (MD, PhD) three-part model, we study
- global quality of life – overall satisfaction with life
- general health-related quality of life – individuals’ self-perceived physical and psychosocial health and functioning
- specific health-related quality of life – quality of life related to particular health challenges or life domains.
Quality of life is shaped by both subjective experiences and objective conditions – such as housing, participation in working life, and financial circumstances – and may change over time.
The group comprises researchers from several health professions, most of whom are nurses with research competence at different levels, as well as a number of PhD candidates. We collaborate extensively with national and international partners.
Methods
Our projects are largely based on patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) and registry data. We use a broad methodological repertoire, including qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-methods designs.
We conduct systematic reviews and other evidence syntheses both as stand-alone projects and as a foundation for new empirical research and intervention development. Several group members have a particular focus on health technology and AI, including the development and evaluation of digital tools.
Four thematic areas
To reflect the breadth of quality-of-life research, we have organized our projects into four thematic areas, with quality of life as the overarching framework. The areas partially overlap.
Public Health
- Social inequalities in health
- Recipients of social assistance
- Workload and work environment
- Hand hygiene, infection prevention, and antibiotic use
- Students and sleep
Long-term health conditions
- Obesity: prevention, and treatment
- Mental health conditions
- Substance use disorders
- Digital follow-up for type I and II diabetes
- Digital health literacy among people living with long-term conditions
- Cancer nursing
- Palliative care for children and adolescents
- Rare diseases and conditions
- Bladder cancer
- Breast cancer
- Effects of chemotherapy on hearing, smell, and cognition
- Home dialysis
- Digital home follow-up for people living with cancer
Child health clinics and school health services
- Bullying
- Communication and language in child health clinics
- Violence against children
- Parents with immigrant backgrounds
- Support for siblings of children and adolescents in palliative care
- Sleep and infant colic
Children and families
- Health literacy among parents with immigrant backgrounds
- Health literacy among adolescents
- Pediatric palliative care
- Home-based palliative care
- Families of children living with complex care needs
- Siblings’ experiences and support needs
- Parents’ experiences and support needs
- Adolescents living with pain
- Participation and inclusion of children and adolescents
- Families of children living with disabilities
- Active youth and health promoting lifestyles
- Life skills and coping in school (life mastery)
Projects
- Digital and navigation health literacy for people with long-term conditions
- Digital follow-up of patients with type 1 diabetes in the specialist health service (DigiDiaS)
- Hand hygiene, infections prevention, and antibiotic use in nursing homes
- Health technology in homebased palliative care for children (CHIP homeTec)
- HEYoung intervention study
- Impact of cancer chemotherapy treatment on hearing, smell and cognitive function (CanHear)
- Involving young people in research and development of services, with the school health service as an example (UngPuls)
- Literacies for Health and Life Skills
- MUSKHEL - Musculoskeletal Health Literacy in Adolescents
- Nurses' work environment, occupational health, and attrition from the profession
- Optimising health literacy amongst parents with immigrant backgrounds (OPAL)
- Pain, Youth and Over-the-Counter Analgesics (SUS)
- Palliative care for children and adolescents in Oslo Municipality, Søndre Nordstrand
- Patient safety culture and adverse events in surgical context
- Public health nurse’s in Child and Family Health Centres work to prevent and detect child maltreatment
- Socio-spatial Inequality among Families with Children with Disabilities who are Entitled to Cash Benefits and Welfare Services (UPTAKE)
- The practice of interprofessional collaborations within primary health care for children with disabilities
- Young and active – meaningful physical activity to improve physical fitness and enhance health-related quality of life
- Close to professional practitioners’ daily efforts to promote inclusion and quality of life for children and adolescents
- Cognitive and physical changes in older cancer patients receiving chemotherapy
- Education in Pediatric Palliative Care (UPP)
- FettVest/Vestlandsstudien – Obesity surgery in Western Norway
- Harnessing Artificial Intelligence in Childhood Obesity treatment (hAIco)
- More home dialysis for health, quality of life, and cost control
- Open meeting places for families with young children with immigrant backgrounds
- Pediatric palliative care; experiences of children, siblings, and parents
- Pilot project: Alternative social assistance
- Quality of life among people who have had or have bladder cancer
- Sleep among parents with hospitalized children
- Sleep and colic
- Symptoms of eating disorders among patients undergoing obesity surgery
- Talking about language in child health clinics
- Work inclusion, education, or welfare benefits
