Töres Theorell
Biographic Data
| ID | 77651 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Töres Theorell |
| GIVEN NAMES | Töres |
| FAMILY NAME | Theorell |
| SIGNATURE | THEORELL T |
| AFFILIATIONS | Karolinska Institutet |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-1956-7931 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 80 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 434 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 80 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1972 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 10 |
Office Design’s Impact on Psychosocial Work Environment and Emotional Health
This study explores the association between office design and (a) the psychosocial work environment and (b) the emotional health among 4352 employees in seven different office designs. A multivariate linear regression analysis was performed with adjustments for age and educational level for men and women separately. Results show that psychosocial factors and emotional exhaustion differ between both office designs and between genders, with best ou…
Ageing and population shrinking
Population ageing and shrinking are demographic phenomena with far-reaching implications for sustainability in the current context of extensive and rapid urbanization. This Perspective rationalizes their interface by (a) identifying the challenges and opportunities that ageing and shrinking urban populations will have for implementing the sustainable development goals (SDGs), and (b) discussing some emerging interventions to capitalise on the opp…
Music amateurs and professional musicians - their childhood music and their adult health
The article in the present issue of the Nordic Journal of Music Therapy by Bonde, Juel, and Ekholm (2018) addresses a problem that has been discussed for several years: If we believe that music is
A systematic review including meta-analysis of work environment and burnout symptoms
Similar but different
Musical engagement is influenced by both environmental and genetic factors. Here, we explored non-genetic influences on musical engagement by performing semi-structured interviews of 10 Swedish monozygotic twin pairs that were highly discordant for piano practicing. The interviews were organized into five sections – (i) perceived reasons for the discordance; (ii) childhood differences in specific music related variables; (iii) strong memories of …
Risk of psychological ill health and methods of organisational downsizing
The manner in which organizational downsizing is implemented can be important for the psychological wellbeing of workers. If downsizing is unavoidable, it should be achieved strategically. Greater attention is needed to employment and health policies supporting the workers after reactive downsizing
The Psychological Consequences of Pre-Emigration Trauma and Post-Migration Stress in Refugees and Immigrants from Africa
Occupational Health
A systematic review including meta-analysis of work environment and depressive symptoms
Long working hours and risk of coronary heart disease and stroke
Exploring women's fear of childbirth in a high maternal mortality setting on the Arabian Peninsula
The numerous maternal and infant deaths have a strong impact on women's FOC. Antenatal care has an important role in reducing fear including that of institutional childbirth and in strengthening a couple in welcoming a female infant. Staff should be sensitized to the fears of both husband and wife and women be allowed support during childbirth. Within the scope of the Millennium Development Goals and strengthening of reproductive mental health pr…
Depressive symptoms as a cause and effect of job loss in men and women
The evidence from this study suggests that the relative importance of social causation and health selection varies by gender in the context of organisational downsizing. Strategies for handling depression among employees should be sensitive to gender-specific risks during layoffs. Policies preventing social exclusion can be important for female workers at higher risk of depression
‘Sound of Well-being’ revisited – Choir singing and well-being among Norwegian municipal employees
A recent cross-sectional study investigating an organizational choir-singing intervention called ‘Sound of Well-being’ (SOW) indicated health and organizational benefits, and a gender-specific pattern of participation and outcomes. In this study we investigate participation and effects in a short version of SOW. A total of 1100 employees of a Norwegian municipality were invited to participate in SOW. At baseline, 472 (42.9 per cent) employees fil…
Are subjective cognitive complaints related to memory functioning in the working population
Cognitive functioning is important for managing work and life in general. Some experience problems with cognitive functioning, often referred to as subjective cognitive complaints (SCC). These problems are rather prevalent in the working population and can be coupled with both lowered well-being and work ability. However, the relation between SCC and memory functioning across the adult age-span, and in the work force, is not clear as few populati…
Job strain and depressive symptoms in men and women
BACKGROUND: Several prospective studies have indicated increased risk of developing depressive symptoms in employees who report psychologically demanding and uncontrollable work (job strain). There are diverging findings regarding gender differences in this relationship. The aim was to analyse whether men and women differ with regard to the prospective relationship between adverse psychosocial work environment and depressive symptoms during a 2-y…
Life-Course Accumulation of Neighborhood Disadvantage and Allostatic Load
Objectives. We examined if the accumulation of neighborhood disadvantages from adolescence to mid-adulthood were related to allostatic load, a measure of cumulative biological risk, in mid-adulthood, and explored whether this association was similar in women and men. Methods. Data were from the participants in the Northern Swedish Cohort (analytical n = 818) at ages 16, 21, 30, and 43 years in 1981, 1986, 1995, and 2008. Personal living condition…
Parental academic involvement in adolescence, academic achievement over the life course and allostatic load in middle age
BACKGROUND: Parental involvement in their children's studies, particularly in terms of academic socialisation, has been shown to predict academic achievement, and is thus a candidate modifiable factor influencing life course socioeconomic circumstances. Socioeconomic disadvantage is thought to impact on health over the life course partly by allostatic load, that is, cumulative biological risk. We sought to elucidate the role of parental involveme…
Job strain as a risk factor for coronary heart disease
Sound of well-being – choir singing as an intervention to improve well-being among employees in two Norwegian county hospitals
Objective: Interventions promoting a healthy psychosocial work environment are common, yet little is known about participation and effectiveness of such measures. The aim of this study was to describe differences between participants and nonparticipants in the Sound of Wellbeing (SOW) initiative, including a variety of demographic characteristics, perceived work environment, psychological factors and self-perceived health. The study also compared…
Stress and prevalence of hearing problems in the Swedish working population
The present study unambiguously demonstrates associations between hearing problems and various stressors that have not been previously described for the auditory system. These findings will open new avenues for future investigations
Cultural activities and public health
In Norway and Sweden, the governments see a potential for establishing a policy for cultural participation, based on the assumption that cultural activities will improve health and well-being. Aim: The aim was to survey the scientific literature in Norway and Sweden concerning cultural interventions for increased well-being and health. All applications of cultural activities in medical and leisure time field were included. Methods: Medline, Cinah…
Covert coping with unfair treatment at work and risk of incident myocardial infarction and cardiac death among men
BACKGROUND: Covert coping with unfair treatment at work--occurring when an employee does not show the "aggressor" that he/she feels unfairly treated--has been found to be associated with cardiovascular risk factors. This study examined whether covert coping also predicts incident coronary heart disease. METHODS: A prospective cohort study (the WOLF Stockholm study) of workplaces in the Stockholm area, Sweden. The participants were 2755 men with n…
Socioeconomic status over the life course and allostatic load in adulthood
BACKGROUND: Although several studies have reported rather consistent associations between socioeconomic status (SES) and allostatic load (AL), so far no study has examined the influence of SES over the life course on AL. The aim of the present study was to investigate the association between SES over the life course and AL in mid-adulthood, guided by the conceptual models of cumulative risk, critical period and social chain of risk. METHODS: The …
The psychophysiology of flow during piano playing
Expert performance is commonly accompanied by a subjective state of optimal experience called flow. Previous research has shown positive correlations between flow and quality of performance and suggests that flow may function as a reward signal that promotes practice. Here, piano playing was used as a flow-inducing behavior in order to analyze the relationship between subjective flow reports and psychophysiological measures. Professional classica…
European welfare production
1: Introduction J. Vogel. 2: The Labour Market J. Vogel. 3: The Welfare State J. Vogel. 4: The Family J. Vogel. 5: Income and Material Living Standards J. Vogel. 6: Health T. Theorell, J. Vogel. 7: Welfare Regimes and Welfare Opinions: A Comparison of Eight Western Countries S. Svallfors. 8: Subjective Well-being in the European Union B. Christoph, H.-H. Noll. 9: Towards a Typology of European Welfare Production. Summary and Discussion J. Vogel. …
Job decision latitude, job demands, and cardiovascular disease
The association between specific job characteristics and subsequent cardiovascular disease was tested using a large random sample of the male working Swedish population. The prospective development of coronary heart disease (CHD) symptoms and signs was analyzed using a multivariate logistic regression technique. Additionally, a case-controlled study was used to analyze all cardiovascular-cerebrovascular (CHD-CVD) deaths during a six-year follow-u…
Job characteristics in relation to the prevalence of myocardial infarction in the US Health Examination Survey (HES) and the Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (Hanes)
Associations between psychosocial job characteristics and past myocardial infarction (MI) prevalence for employed males were tested with the Health Examination Survey (HES) 1960-61, N = 2,409, and the Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (HANES) 1971-75, N = 2,424. A new estimation method is used which imputes to census occupation codes, job characteristic information from national surveys of job characteristics (US Department of Labor, Qualit…
Myocardial infarction risk and psychosocial work environment
Decision latitude, job strain, and myocardial infarction
OBJECTIVES: This study examined the role of decision latitude and job strain in the etiology of a first myocardial infarction. METHODS: Eligible case patients were all full-time working men 45 to 64 years of age who suffered a first myocardial infarction during the period January 1992 to January 1993 in the greater Stockholm region. Referents were selected from the general population. Participation rates were 82% (case patients) and 75% (referent…
Effect of change in the psychosocial work environment on sickness absence
STUDY OBJECTIVE: To investigate the impact of changes in psychosocial work environment on subsequent sickness absence. DESIGN: Analysis of questionnaire and sickness absence data collected in three time periods: 1990-1991, before the recession; 1993, worst slump during the recession; and 1993-1997, a period after changes. SETTING: Raisio, a town in south western Finland, during and after a period of economic decline. PARTICIPANTS: 530 municipal e…
Is the effect of job strain on myocardial infarction risk due to interaction between high psychological demands and low decision latitude? Results from Stockholm Heart Epidemiology Program (SHEEP)
Do national levels of individualism and internal locus of control relate to well‐being
Data were collected from managers in 24 nations/territories on work locus of control (LOC), individualism–collectivism (I–C), and well‐being (job satisfaction, absence of psychological strain, and absence of physical strain). There were significant mean differences across samples on all five of these measures, and consistent with our hypothesis, at the ecological or sample mean level well‐being was associated with an internal locus of control. Ho…
High effort, low reward, and cardiovascular risk factors in employed Swedish men and women
STUDY OBJECTIVE: To examine associations between measures of work stress (that is, the combination of high effort and low reward) and cardiovascular risk factors. DESIGN: Cross sectional first screening of a prospective cohort study. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: The study was conducted among 5720 healthy employed men and women living in the greater Stockholm area aged 19-70 years. All analyses were restricted to subjects with complete data (n = 4958…
Youth unemployment and ill health
Life-Course Accumulation of Neighborhood Disadvantage and Allostatic Load
Objectives. We examined if the accumulation of neighborhood disadvantages from adolescence to mid-adulthood were related to allostatic load, a measure of cumulative biological risk, in mid-adulthood, and explored whether this association was similar in women and men. Methods. Data were from the participants in the Northern Swedish Cohort (analytical n = 818) at ages 16, 21, 30, and 43 years in 1981, 1986, 1995, and 2008. Personal living condition…
Socioeconomic status over the life course and allostatic load in adulthood
BACKGROUND: Although several studies have reported rather consistent associations between socioeconomic status (SES) and allostatic load (AL), so far no study has examined the influence of SES over the life course on AL. The aim of the present study was to investigate the association between SES over the life course and AL in mid-adulthood, guided by the conceptual models of cumulative risk, critical period and social chain of risk. METHODS: The …
Job characteristics of occupations and myocardial infarction risk
Prolactin—a hormone that mirrors passiveness in crisis situations
Does singing promote well-being
Psychophysiological correlates of organizational change and threat of unemployment among police inspectors
Job strain and depressive symptoms in men and women
BACKGROUND: Several prospective studies have indicated increased risk of developing depressive symptoms in employees who report psychologically demanding and uncontrollable work (job strain). There are diverging findings regarding gender differences in this relationship. The aim was to analyse whether men and women differ with regard to the prospective relationship between adverse psychosocial work environment and depressive symptoms during a 2-y…
Prevalence and characteristics of hearing problems in a working and non-working Swedish population
BACKGROUND: Hearing problems are among the top 10 most common burdens of disease and are projected to be become even more common by the year 2030. The aim of the present study was to give a current assessment of the prevalence of communication difficulties because of hearing loss and tinnitus, in the general Swedish working and non-working populations in relation to sex, age, socioeconomic status (SES) and noise exposure. How prevalence is affect…
Self-selected "favourite" stimulative and sedative music listening - how does familiar and preferred music listening affect the body
There is a need for studies looking at the psychophysiological effects of everyday listening to favourite music since such listening is very common in modern societies and the extent to which arousing music can activate biological systems is being discussed. Effects of listening to two self-selected pieces of favourite music (stimulative and sedative respectively) on both aroused (sad/joyful, listless/energetic, worried/elated) and relaxed (tense…
The relation of social support and working environment to medical variables associated with elevated blood pressure in young males
Social activation of the elderly
Cultural activities and public health
In Norway and Sweden, the governments see a potential for establishing a policy for cultural participation, based on the assumption that cultural activities will improve health and well-being. Aim: The aim was to survey the scientific literature in Norway and Sweden concerning cultural interventions for increased well-being and health. All applications of cultural activities in medical and leisure time field were included. Methods: Medline, Cinah…
Workplace conflict resolution and the health of employees in the Swedish and Finnish units of an industrial company
Pre-Migration Trauma and HIV-Risk Behavior
This study examined the relationship between pre-migration trauma and HIV-risk behavior in refugees from sub-Saharan Africa. The sample comprised 122 persons who had emigrated from sub-Saharan Africa and were currently residing in Sweden. Qualitative methods including individual interviews, focus groups, and interviews with key informants addressed questions regarding trauma experience and HIV-risk behavior. A history of pre-migration trauma was …
Sound of well-being – choir singing as an intervention to improve well-being among employees in two Norwegian county hospitals
Objective: Interventions promoting a healthy psychosocial work environment are common, yet little is known about participation and effectiveness of such measures. The aim of this study was to describe differences between participants and nonparticipants in the Sound of Wellbeing (SOW) initiative, including a variety of demographic characteristics, perceived work environment, psychological factors and self-perceived health. The study also compared…
Job strain and ischaemic disease
OBJECTIVE: Evidence on the association between job strain and ischaemic disease is mixed. This study examined whether including older age individuals in a cohort used to assess job strain attenuates findings towards the null. DESIGN: A prospective cohort study with baseline screening in 1992-5. A follow-up for ischaemic disease until 2003 was based on linkages to national registries. Ischaemic disease was corroborated by objective criteria (hospi…
A Longitudinal Study of 21 Subjects with Coronary Heart Disease
Twenty-one male, well-rehabilitated survivors of myocardial infarction participated in repeated observations during a period of 2 to 4 months on the same weekdays and hours of the day. The sum of the self-reportedlifechange units for the week prior to the observation was independently calculated by a psychologist. It was found that several subjects had experienced numerous psychosocial changes during the observation period. Hence, the experiment …
Herzkrank durch psychosozialen stress
Job decision latitude, job demands, and cardiovascular disease
The association between specific job characteristics and subsequent cardiovascular disease was tested using a large random sample of the male working Swedish population. The prospective development of coronary heart disease (CHD) symptoms and signs was analyzed using a multivariate logistic regression technique. Additionally, a case-controlled study was used to analyze all cardiovascular-cerebrovascular (CHD-CVD) deaths during a six-year follow-u…
Blood pressure variations across areas in the greater Stockholm region
Social activation of the elderly
Myocardial infarction risk and psychosocial work environment
An Experimental Study of Social Isolation of Elderly People
Psychoendocrine and metabolic effects of social isolation and understimulation in real life were examined in a controlled study of 60 elderly people representative of their age group. Together with the staff and the elderly, a social activation program was formed at a senior citizen apartment building. Half of the elderly were part of this activation program (experimental group). The other half constituted the control group. Blood sampling and ps…
Psychological, sociological and health behaviour aspects of a long term activation programme for institutionalized elderly people
Job characteristics of occupations and myocardial infarction risk
The relation of social support and working environment to medical variables associated with elevated blood pressure in young males
Coping and social activity patterns among relatives of cancer patients
Changes in job strain in relation to changes in physiological state. A longitudinal study.
A sample of 73 men and women aged 22-63 years and working in six different occupations (air traffic controllers, waiters, physicians, symphony orchestra musicians, baggage handlers, and airplane mechanics) participated in a longitudinal study four times during a year. The spontaneous variations in job strain (determined as the self-reported ratio between psychological demands and decision latitude) were substantial. The average difference between…
Emotional Coping and the Psychophysiological Substrates of Elevated Blood Pressure
A structured interview concerning emotional coping patterns was administered to 63 28-year-old men included in a psychophysiological study of blood pressure elevation. The interviews were tape recorded and subsequently evaluated by a rater not otherwise involved in the study. The interviews involved discussion of four emotions: anger, sorrow, anxiety, and joy. The results indicate that normotensives can express sorrow to significantly more people…
Elevation of Glycosylated Hemoglobin in a Severe Crisis Situation—Cancer in a Close Relative
In the present study, 58 relatives of cancer patients (50 women and 8 men, mean age 53) who experienced the grief and tension induced by severe illness in the family were followed. The aim of the study was to examine possible associations between anxiety, depression, and mental exhaustion, on one hand, and glycosylated hemoglobin (HbAlC) level and changes in HbAlC level on the other hand. The relatives were studied approximately once a month duri…
Job characteristics in relation to the prevalence of myocardial infarction in the US Health Examination Survey (HES) and the Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (Hanes)
Associations between psychosocial job characteristics and past myocardial infarction (MI) prevalence for employed males were tested with the Health Examination Survey (HES) 1960-61, N = 2,409, and the Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (HANES) 1971-75, N = 2,424. A new estimation method is used which imputes to census occupation codes, job characteristic information from national surveys of job characteristics (US Department of Labor, Qualit…
Youth unemployment and ill health
Combined effects of job strain and social isolation on cardiovascular disease morbidity and mortality in a random sample of the Swedish male working population.
This study examined the impact of psychosocial work organization on cardiovascular disease (CVD) morbidity and the nine-year cumulative mortality incidence for a random sample of the male Swedish working population (N = 7219). A multiplicative measure was constructed to model the combined effects of psychological job demands, work-related social support and work control. Highly strained and isolated workers had a higher age-adjusted prevalence ra…
Slow-reacting immunoglobulin in relation to social support and changes in job strain
Fifty working subjects in the ages 25 to 60 were asked to rate the amount of job strain (demands divided by decision latitude) that they experienced on four occasions at intervals of three to four months. Blood samples were taken for the analysis of immunoglobulin G before work started on these work days. After the end of the studied year each subject was asked to rate the total amount of social support that he/she had experienced. Both availabil…
“Person under train” incidents
UNLABELLED: From the subway driver's point of view, a "person under train" (PUT) incident is a serious life event. This study focuses on the 1-year consequences of such events. Follow-up was made 3 weeks, 3 months, and 1 year after the event. Forty consecutive PUT subway drivers were followed. For each PUT driver, a control driver matched with regard to gender, age, and country of birth was followed at identical intervals. MAIN RESULTS: The PUT g…
Prolactin—a hormone that mirrors passiveness in crisis situations
The psychological and social condition of hypertensives resistant to pharmacological treatment
Person under train' incidents from the subway driver's point of view-A prospective 1-year follow-up study
Social Support and the Development of Immune Function in Human Immunodeficiency Virus Infection
A psychosocial investigation offered to all human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected men with moderately severe or severe hemophilia in Sweden was made in 1986. Most of these men had been infected in the years 1980 to 1984 and told about their infections in 1985. Forty-nine subjects had answered questions in regard to sources of emotional support in their life situation. Based on the responses to these questions a score of "availability of att…
Current issues relating to psychosocial job strain and cardiovascular disease research.
Electrocortical Responses to ecologically relevant visual stimuli among professional drivers with and without cardiovascular disease
Medicine (65 works) · Psychology (55 works) · Psychiatry (41 works) · Internal Medicine (30 works) · Workplace Health and Well-being (30 works) · Demography (27 works) · Psychosocial (26 works) · Social Psychology (26 works) · Gerontology (20 works) · Clinical Psychology (18 works)