Migration, Family and Obesity. Understanding of Socio-Cultural Determinants to Build Better Interven

Important results from the project

The objective of this project was to establish a collaboration between the project leader Dr. Nowicka from the pediatric obesity team at Karolinska Institutet (Sweden) and the Unit for Biocultural Variation and Obesity (UBVO) at University of Oxford (UK), with the goal of investigating the sociocultural drivers of obesity and applying this knowledge in pediatric interventions. The project resulted in synergy between two research milieus (papers, shared students and workshops) and enabled Dr. Nowicka to establish an expert position in an important field for future health care.

Expected long term effects

For UBVO at University of Oxford, the collaboration has given novel competences to the study of social and cultural drivers of obesity: those of childhood and family studies. For KI, improved knowledge on sociocultural drivers of obesity was directly implemented in ongoing projects in health care systems, an important short-term result of the collaboration. For both partners, expected long-term success of the project include a more profound understanding of development of a lifestyle disease that place an excessive burden on health services.

Approach and implementation

Dr. Nowicka has been responsible for the collaboration network, data analysis and integrating the new competences in the Swedish environment. Beyond establishing a collaboration between prominent research milieus, the project created unique opportunities for Dr Nowicka to develop skills essential for establishing a position as a research director in her own research niche. The international aspect of the project allowed Dr. Nowicka to establish her own network in Europe to facilitate student exchange, scientific collaboration on grant applications and joint publications.