The digitalization of health care is currently subject to extensive hype (both negative and positive), which obscures its potential to benefit humanity. Science and Technology Studies have described the computational translation of health information as “datafication,” often from a critical stance in which such technologies limit agency of patients and clinicians. Conversely, health care has long since been structured along highly unequal lines with high levels of inequity, in which parts of the population experience reduced healthcare access. In addition, there are high levels of health illiteracy, where some groups are not only unaware of their own health needs or how to access health care, but the healthcare system is itself lacking key information on the needs of those individuals. In that context, digital systems able to handle and communicate large datasets are often heralded as a solution for better connecting patients and the healthcare system within a holistic model. To help bring much-needed nuance to our understanding of digital health care, the article looks to the example of digital dental health—both implemented and potential—within Skåne in Southern Sweden, with a mix of an advanced welfare model healthcare system combined with a diverse population consisting of many foreign-born nationals. By interviewing dental professionals working in Skåne, we investigate the intersection between the theoretical arguments and the practical constraints and opportunities for digital health.

Background: Everyday challenges and stress negatively affect young people's mental health. Socioeconomic status (SES) is associated with different stressors and different stress-coping mechanisms. Many interventions target youth mental health, but few consider socioeconomic differences in the planning, implementation, or evaluation. In a Swedish context socioeconomic status is related with migration experience. The aim of the study was to explore proposals for tackling everyday challenges among young people from different socioeconomic neighborhoods.

Methods: Eight focus groups, with participants between 13 and 15 years old from eight schools, were conducted in the south of Sweden. The participants discussed proposals for tackling everyday challenges. Using comparative thematic analysis, the focus group transcripts were divided into two groups, based on the socioeconomic status of the school's neighborhood, and analyzed comparatively. Most of the participants in low SES neighborhoods had foreign background and most of the participants in high SES neighborhoods were Swedish born.

Results: The analysis resulted in four shared themes between the two SES groups: society is responsible, school is responsible, parents are responsible, and I am responsible. The differences and similarities between the two groups are presented in sub-themes. Many of the proposals were similar between the two SES groups, but with different underlying issues and examples.

Conclusion: Both groups proposed that adults must listen more to young people in order to improve the everyday challenges young people face. However, the low SES group in general expressed both more frustration and more agency, compared to the high SES group. This could be important to consider when planning school-based mental health promotion in different socioeconomic neighborhoods.

Reports indicate a decrease in youth mental health in Sweden but at the same time research suggests that what is interpreted as mental ill-health could be considered everyday challenges by young people themselves. The distribution of mental health and illness among young people is uneven based on inequities related to factors such as race, gender and socioeconomic status. Sweden in particular is a country with large socioeconomic inequities in youth mental health and in school results, compared to other European countries. The aim of this study was to explore young people's experiences of the role of race, gender and socioeconomic status in relation to everyday challenges. Sixty-five young people aged 13–15 years old were recruited by student health services and participated in focus group discussions at schools in the southernmost part of Sweden. Data were analysed by secondary analysis with deductive qualitative content analysis using Ecosocial theory of disease distribution as theoretical framework. The analysis resulted in one main theme; Navigating inequities to gain and keep social status, with three underlying themes; Guided by social norms, Negative impact in everyday life and Importance of family influence. Participants were aware and critical of norms and expectations related to race, gender and socioeconomic status. Experiences of prejudice and unfairness was both own lived experiences by the participants as well as observed through friends and classmates. Young people spontaneously identify everyday challenges related to race, gender and socioeconomic status, even when not asked directly about these issues. Conforming to sexist, racist and classist, expectations is a way to lose and gain status in a school setting. Many of the inequities discussed related to socioeconomic status and the direct consequences of having or not having money. Young people's everyday experience of inequities is important to consider in youth mental health promotion aiming to tackle health inequities. Further research is needed on those experiences and how this affects mental health.

During the past decades there has been an increase in mental ill-health problems among children. Social-emotional learning (SEL) has shown promise to promote well-being by supporting children in developing abilities to cope with everyday difficulties. Structured SEL programs can be part of the school curriculum from early age. However, teachers' positive perceptions of the values of such programs are essential for program success. The aim of this evidence synthesis was to describe and understand teachers' experiences of providing SEL programs to students and their perceived effect on students' mental well-being. We followed the ENTREQ and PRISMA guidelines. Systematic searches were conducted and we included seven studies with a moderate level of methodological limitations. We conducted a thematic meta-synthesis, and confidence in the evidence was assessed with GRADE-CERQual. Teachers perceived that students developed a higher level of coping with their feelings and created improved relationships as a result of the SEL programs. As they received new tools to support students' well-being, teachers were positive to the programs. They noted, however, that the programs needed adaptation to the local context. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first meta-synthesis on the experiences among teachers on the impact of SEL programs on students' well-being. Notably, the results suggest that SEL programs could help teachers to attend to students' mental health. After conducting extensive searches for data, only studies from high-income countries were found. Therefore, further studies are needed within low-income countries in regard to SEL programs and experiences among teachers on students' mental wellbeing. It would also be beneficial to synthesize research on the students and their experiences on how SEL programs impact their mental well-being.

Collaboration for nursing is a core competence and therefore educational interventions are essentials for collaborative skills. To identify such interventions, we carried out a study to understand nursing students' collaborative process. A narrative inquiry method was used to explore the collaborative process of first-year undergraduate nursing students. The analysis was conducted on field notes from 70 h of observation of 87 nursing students' collaboration during skills lab activities. It also included transcriptions of four focus group discussions with 11 students. The results are presented as a sequential process of (1) navigating in unfamiliar territory, (2) navigating together to cope, and (3) navigating together towards independency and the future nursing profession. We identified a transition from teacher-led assistance and guidance to student interdependency and reciprocal learning, ending with student-led assistance supporting independency. In line with Vygotsky's theory of zone of proximal development, different scaffolding interventions are needed depending on where the students are in the collaborative process. 

INTRODUCTION: Research suggests that participating in after-school leisure activities has been related to promoting health, well-being and safety among children living in disadvantaged neighbourhoods. The United Nations Child Rights Convention emphasises the inclusion of children in decisions that concern them. However, children seldom are involved in designing implementing and evaluating health promotional environments. The aim of this programme is through a participatory process with children, parents/guardians, and peer-activity leaders explore, measure and evaluate the impact on children's overall well-being related to the social context in an already established health promotion environments in Southern Sweden.

METHODS AND ANALYSIS: The project is based on a previously implemented unique community-based participatory research (CBPR) model for equal health in three socially disadvantaged areas in Malmö. All activity house (AAH) is a meeting place for children established in schools but after school time by the culture department of the Malmö municipality. In AAH migrant children participate in need-driven after school activities that they themselves create and develop. To increase participation of the children and ensure that these environments are based on their needs, 30 children (10-12 years), parents/guardians (30), peer-activity leaders (15), and researchers create CBPR teams in the areas and engage in a participatory process. The children reflect, analyse and write about their well-being; identify and discuss key factors in an iterative process, which also includes a strategic group of stakeholders. The children then develop and validate (with 100 other children from AAH) the Socioculturally Aligned Survey Instrument for Children survey inspired by the KIDSSCREEN V.27. The survey tool so developed will further be used to evaluate AAH and will be distributed to all children participating in their activities.

ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: This programme has been approved by the Swedish Ethical Review Authority. The results from this programme will be published as reports and scientific publication.

Background

The goal of the Swedish child healthcare system is to reach all children with health-promotive actions and to create equal health opportunities for all children. In that context, an extended home-visit program – called Grow Safely – for first-time parents, with an interprofessional collaboration between child healthcare nurses, midwives, social workers, and dental assistants, was initiated. The current study aims at illuminating and evaluating the health, social, and dental professionals’ experiences of working within this program and how such collaboration could benefit the professions.

Methods

A qualitative method was chosen, and 13 interviews were carried out with professionals working within child healthcare centers that participated in an extended home-visit program in the southernmost part of Sweden. The interviews were analyzed via Burnard’s approach to content analysis.

Results

The results showed that it was satisfying for the health, social, and dental professionals to work with the home-visit program and that they encountered positive feelings among the parents receiving it. The creation of deep conversations and parents opening up about feelings that could otherwise be shameful to express, was a positive aspect of the home visits. A negative aspect was the difficulty of handling the (sometimes necessary) interpretation over the phone during the visits, and another one was the fact that the visits were time-consuming and required logistical planning. Overall, the professionals were positive about the home-visit program in that they felt that they were able to give the families what they needed and to have discussions on sensitive issues. They also appreciated the fact that different professions collaborated in order to reach the same goal. 

Conclusions

This study showed that the health, social, and dental professionals enjoyed working with the home-visit program and that they encountered positive feelings among the parents regarding the collaborative visits being conducted within the home, where the families felt safe and relaxed. Despite the extended time required and the logistical challenges involved, the professionals expressed that the home visits created a deeper collaboration amongst them. 

Objectives 

Health inequalities exist among children in Sweden, and one effort that the Swedish government has focused on to promote health among small children and their parents is an extended home-visiting program during the child’s first 15 months. This study aimed to illuminate healthcare professionals’ experiences of meeting parents in different social situations during the home visits within Grow safely. 

Methods

The chosen method was qualitative, and 13 interviews were carried out with healthcare, social, and dental professionals working with the extended home-visiting program within the child healthcare in the south of Sweden. 

Results

The results revealed that the parents raised differing needs in the meetings with the healthcare professionals in the program. The needs included advice on children with special needs, support with problematic breastfeeding, and more psychosocial support. The professionals met different groups of parents, such as young parents or newly arrived migrant parents, that in different ways needed the team to reach out to them. The professionals also met families who came from better-off areas and who were not initially considered to really need the program. As the program progressed, these parents could see that diverse, unpredictable needs could be met by the intervention. For example, the program provided access to and advice from social workers, which in turn created contacts that lasted longer than the program itself.

Conclusions

The professionals encountered various family situations and needs within the extended home-visiting program. This highlights the need for a close collaboration between child healthcare nurses and social workers, in order to be able to support the families and work towards the aim of reaching equal health among all children in Sweden. 

Migration management policies in many states have marginalized significant numbers of individuals on the basis of their precarious residency status, negatively impacting their health. This article looks at how three European states with high levels of contagion - France, Sweden, and the United Kingdom - adapted their migration management policies to the changed circumstances during the Covid 19 pandemic in which there was new pressure for prioritizing population health over other concerns. The analysis compares globally-recognized 'best practices' for migrant health during the pandemic with policies adopted by France, Sweden, and the UK - selected as prominent migrant-hosting states and that experienced high rates of Covid-19. The article draws on supplementary evidence through interviews with civil society organizations working directly with migrants living on the margins of society - what are termed here 'marginalized migrants' (MMs). As the article concludes, the national policies often fell below international 'best practices' such that migration management was often prioritized over population health despite the crisis. The perspective developed in this paper is important for understanding where migration control policies have been prioritized over public health.