The Umeå Centre for Global Health Research (UCGHR) was a centre of excellence within

Umeå University Umeå University (; Ume Sami language, Ume Sami: ) is a public university, public research university located in Umeå, in the mid-northern region of Sweden. The university was founded in 1965 and is the fifth oldest within Sweden's present bord ...

in northern

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

. The centre operated within the university's Department of Epidemiology and Global Health, and was led by a steering group chaired by a principal investigator. UCGHR sought to engage with a global agenda on health research and practice, addressing critical issues in

global health Global health is the health of populations in a worldwide context; it has been defined as "the area of study, research, and practice that places a priority on improving health and achieving equity in health for all people worldwide". Problems th ...

and facilitating collaboration between and within the North and South. The centre's long-term research programme has been developed against a background of international epidemiological research, as well as

public health Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals". Analyzing the de ...

work within Sweden. The centre was responsible for publishing the open-access academic journal ''

Global Health Action ''Global Health Action'' is a peer-reviewed open access journal publishing research on global health. ''Global Health Action'' is published by Taylor & Francis in partnership and a 50/50 ownership agreement with Umeå University, Sweden. Accordi ...

''.

Research

Research conducted within UCGHR was interdisciplinary in nature, with staff and students working together from backgrounds in

demography Demography () is the statistical study of human populations: their size, composition (e.g., ethnic group, age), and how they change through the interplay of fertility (births), mortality (deaths), and migration. Demographic analysis examine ...

sciences,

epidemiology Epidemiology is the study and analysis of the distribution (who, when, and where), patterns and Risk factor (epidemiology), determinants of health and disease conditions in a defined population, and application of this knowledge to prevent dise ...

medicine Medicine is the science and Praxis (process), practice of caring for patients, managing the Medical diagnosis, diagnosis, prognosis, Preventive medicine, prevention, therapy, treatment, Palliative care, palliation of their injury or disease, ...

economics Economics () is a behavioral science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interac ...

statistics Statistics (from German language, German: ', "description of a State (polity), state, a country") is the discipline that concerns the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of data. In applying statistics to a s ...

and

sociology Sociology is the scientific study of human society that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. The term sociol ...

. Research activities were clustered around five areas of expertise: * The

epidemiological transition In demography and medical geography, epidemiological transition is a theory which "describes changing population patterns in terms of fertility, life expectancy, mortality, and leading causes of death." For example, a phase of development marked ...

- research aims to contribute to theoretical and methodological development of the epidemiological transition theory by contrasting disadvantaged communities in low-income countries to the well-developed setting of northern Sweden. * A life course perspective on health interventions - research aims to design and evaluate health interventions targeting different stages of the life course, from the unborn child to old age, taking into account social context and gender aspects, and both advantaged and disadvantaged communities. * Strengthening

primary health care Primary health care (PHC) is a whole-of-society approach to effectively organise and strengthen national health systems to bring services for health and wellbeing closer to communities. Primary health care enables health systems to support a pe ...

: the roles of rights, ethics and economic analyses - research is designed to inform key stakeholders involved in decision-making to strengthen primary health care in low-, middle- and high-income countries, using rights-based approaches integrated with economic analyses. *

Gender Gender is the range of social, psychological, cultural, and behavioral aspects of being a man (or boy), woman (or girl), or third gender. Although gender often corresponds to sex, a transgender person may identify with a gender other tha ...

, social inequality and health - research is based on the generation of new knowledge on gender and health, with the aim of contributing to social changes within populations and in health systems. * Climate change and health - research is intended to fill the knowledge gap regarding links between climate change and health, with a focus on non-communicable diseases, ageing populations, health sector responses in low-income countries and issues particular to the

Arctic region The Arctic (; . ) is the polar region of Earth that surrounds the North Pole, lying within the Arctic Circle. The Arctic region, from the IERS Reference Meridian travelling east, consists of parts of northern Norway (Nordland, Troms, Finnmar ...

. Many of UCGHR's research projects were linked t
INDEPTH
(the International Network for the Demographic Evaluation of Populations and Their Health), a network of field sites in countries across Africa, Asia and South America. This network provides a platform to share and exchange vital health data between some of the world's poorest countries and enables comparative studies of global research questions related to disease development,

urbanisation Urbanization (or urbanisation in British English) is the population shift from rural to urban areas, the corresponding decrease in the proportion of people living in rural areas, and the ways in which societies adapt to this change. It can also ...

and

migration Migration, migratory, or migrate may refer to: Human migration * Human migration, physical movement by humans from one region to another ** International migration, when peoples cross state boundaries and stay in the host state for some minimum le ...

as well as opportunities to develop methods and evaluate interventions.Evans, T. and AbouZahr, C. (2008
'INDEPTH @ 10: Celebrate the past and illuminate the future'
Global Health Action,

Education

Research training was essential to UCGHR. Th
Swedish Research School for Global Health
was the result of a partnership between the centre and the

Karolinska Institute The Karolinska Institute (KI; ; sometimes known as the (Royal) Caroline Institute in English) is a research-led medical university in Solna within the Stockholm urban area of Sweden and one of the foremost medical research institutes globally ...

, Stockholm. The school seeks to achieve multidisciplinary collaboration in education, research and training by coordinating courses and seminars in

, and improving the quality of research training.

Notes

External links

''Global Health Action'' open access journal

Umeå University

Department of Epidemiology and Global Health, Umeå University

Association of Schools of Public Health in the European Region

INDEPTH Network
{{DEFAULTSORT:Umea Centre for Global Health Research International medical and health organizations Schools of public health Research institutes in Sweden Umeå University