In the Nordic welfare states, recent reforms increasingly emphasize individual responsibility, self-care, and preventive health practices. Within this transformation, health literacy has emerged as a key concept linking individual agency to the structural conditions of welfare governance. Defined as the ability to access, understand, evaluate and apply health-related information in daily life, health literacy reflects not only individual competence but also the social organisation of how knowledge and responsibility for health are distributed in society. Despite the growing policy relevance, the sociological understanding of health literacy, and how it shapes inequalities, citizenship, and welfare governance, remain underexplored. This systematic review examines how health literacy has been conceptualized and analysed within sociological and social science research conducted in the Nordic context between 2015 and 2025. It explores how health literacy is connected to welfare governance, social inequality, and the moral framing of the “active” and “responsible” citizen. The review was conducted in the fall of 2025 following PRISMA guidelines. Comprehensive searches were carried out in Scopus, PubMed, Cinahal, with inclusion criteria requiring primary focus on health literacy situated within the Nordic context. Additional searches were conducted in Nordic databases and journals to ensure region-specific publications. The review contributes new knowledge by synthesising and critically analysing a rapidly expanding research field. It advances the sociological understanding of health literacy as both a resource and a governing mechanism, demonstrating how knowledge and responsibility are mobilised to shape citizens´ health-related practices and identities. 

Despite high country-level gender equality, intimate partner violence against women (IPVAW) is common in Sweden. In discussion about this apparent paradox, the complexity of gender in/equality has been highlighted. Drawing on the domains considered in the EIGE gender equality index (work, money, knowledge, time, power, and health), and based on thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews with 23 women exposed to IPVAW, this study investigates experiences of different aspects of gender in/equality in violent partnerships. The violence was described as having influenced and involved all these domains of life. We conclude that gendered power dynamics remain central to IPVAW in Sweden.

Hösten 2023 genomförde tio kommuner i Göteborgsregionen ungdomsundersökningen LUPP, i nära samarbete med varandra och med stöd av GR och FoU i Väst. Kommunerna var Ale, Härryda, Kungsbacka, Kungälv, Lerum, Lilla Edet, Partille, Stenungsund, Tjörn och Öckerö. Samtliga kommuner gjorde enkäten med ungdomar i årskurs 8 och flertalet av kommunerna även med ungdomar i gymnasiets år 2. 

FoU i Väst har tagit fram lokala resultatrapporter som under året har diskuterats i kommunerna på olika sätt. Före sommaren publicerades en regional delrapport med huvudresultaten i diagramform, med möjlighet att jämföra kommunernas resultat med varandra och att följa utvecklingen över tid. Delrapporten ger även en bakgrund till det regionala samarbetet kring LUPP i Göteborgsregionen och beskriver genomförandet av enkäten samt dataunderlagets kvalitet. Samtliga rapporter finns tillgängliga på www.goteborgsregionen.se/lupp 

Den här regionala rapporten motsvarar den sista delen av uppdraget från de tio kommunerna: en analysrapport baserad på LUPP 2023 med fokus på ungdomars psykiska hälsa. Analyserna är särskilt inriktade på att undersöka hur skolrelaterad stress, omfattande användning av mobiler och sociala medier samt upplevelser av otrygghet och erfarenheter av utsatthet tycks bidra till psykisk ohälsa. 

Det finns ett stort behov av kunskap om ungas psykiska hälsa och vad som bidrar till att forma den. Den här rapporten bidrar till aktuell kunskap inom detta område. Det finns samtidigt ett minst lika stort behov av insatser, med tanke på att många ungdomar ger uttryck för psykisk ohälsa. Rapporten innehåller reflektioner och förslag på möjliga åtgärder i ett förstärkt arbete kring barns och ungas hälsa. Vår förhoppning är att den här rapporten ska kunna inspirera kommuner till utvecklingsarbete för, och tillsammans med, kommunernas unga invånare. 

I Region Kronoberg pågår en länsövergripande förändringsprocess som syftar till att stärka barns och ungdomars välbefinnande. Processen kallas Barnens bästa gäller! i Kronobergs län (BBGiK) och kan beskrivas som ett nytt arbetssätt som syftar till att skapa länsövergripande strukturer där olika aktörer kan arbeta tillsammans för att stärka barns och ungdomars välbefinnande.

Inom ramen för Region Kronobergs verksamhet genomförs sedan år 2003 enkätstudien Barns och ungdomars hälsa och levn adsvanor i Kronobergs län. Den omfattar länets alla barn i årskurs 5 samt ungdomar i årskurs åtta och gymnasieskolans andra läsår och genomförs vart tredje år. Vid den senaste enkätundersökningen år 2021 medverkade totalt 5502 barn och ungdomar (Hiltunen & Johansson 2021). Genom att använda befintliga data av god kvalitet minskar behovet av att tillskapa särskilda resurser och former för uppföljning av BBGiK, samtidigt som en utökad användning också ökar värdet av det arbete som lagts ned för att skapa databasen. Genom att använda statistik som kunskapsunderlagökar möjligheten för beslutsfattare och andra relevanta aktörer i länet att styra och utveckla verksamhet samt arbeta med resursfördelning som kan gynna särskilt utsatta grupper eller områden, något som torde ligga i linje med ambitionen för BBGiK. Med hjälp av statistiska analyser av större populationer av barn och ungdomar kan insatser som stärker barn och ungdomars välbefinnande utökas från de indikerade individorienterade till att gälla även större grupper genom selektiva insatser eller unga i allmänhet genom universella insatser (Forkby & Löfström, 2010).

Även om den aktuella enkäten inte utformats för det nya arbetssättet inom ramen för BBGiK finns dock en rad frågor som kan fungera som indikatorer för dimensionerna i barnens bäs ta-hjulet. Följaktligen finns goda möjlighet att kartlägga dimensioner av välbefinnande bland unga i Kronobergs län på en mer aggregerad nivå.

Syfte och frågeställningar

Syftet med denna rapport är att utifrån befintlig verksamhetsstatistik presentera ett förslag på hur en lokal uppföljningsmodell kan se ut inom ramen för BBGiK. Ytterligare en målsättning är att presentera ett kunskapsunderlag för lokalt preventionsarbete för länets samtliga kommuner.

European industrial relations are strongly articulated in a multilevel structure connecting local, sectoral, national, and European organisational levels and dialogue between trade unions and employers. An important aspect of the functioning of such multilevel governance and dialogue systems is the communicative articulation between levels. This study sets out to explore to what extent communication concerning health and safety issues takes place in the sectors of hospitals/healthcare and social assistance/elderly care. We focus in particular on aspects of disarticulation between levels – or rather, impediments in the communicative flow in the existing articulated system – here conceptualized as instances of decoupling. Empirically the study is based on interviews with trade union officials and representatives for employer associations placed at the sectoral and/or national level in six countries (IT, DE, LT, UK, PL, SE). That is, the point of departure for the analysis is the experiences of the actors at the mid-levels in this multilevel system. Thematically, the study explores to what extent information and influence from lower levels are received and used at higher levels, and to what extent decisions/regulations and support/guidance/tools from higher levels are received and implemented and/or used at lower levels. Through this country comparative case study-analysis, based on a selection of country context that aims to maximise variation of industrial relations regimes, we thus aim to capture both recurrent and more country specific problems created through the decoupling of communication on H & S in these two sectors – against the background of institutional divergencies between national contexts.

The article examines the role of social partners (trade unions and employers) in the field of occupational safety and health (OSH). The Covid-19 pandemic directed attention to the importance of greater national and European level policy coordination to protect and promote healthy, safe, and well-adapted work environments. On the basis of two sectors, hospitals and social services with a focus on elder care, the article asks how OSH policy interventions at the national level and the European level are interlinked. To explore interlinkages, the article focuses on OSH policy coordination between national social partners and European level sectoral social dialogue. The analysis is informed by actor-centred institutionalist and multilevel governance approaches and uses qualitative data. The article explores patterns of interlinkages between the national and European levels in two sectors and six countries and discusses the limitations of applying a cross-national and multilevel conceptual approach. The analysis shows that the pandemic has promoted some coordination at national and between national and EU levels, yet still rather modest interlinkages and degrees of ‘vertical’ coordination can be observed. The paper concludes that there continues to be a degree of ‘in-the-making’ to the multilevel governance of employment relations, even in the presence of common challenges.

Despite highly rated country-level gender equality, survey-reported experiences of intimate partner violence against women (IPVAW) are common in Sweden, as in neighbouring Nordic countries. This apparently contradictory situation has been referred to as a Nordic Paradox. Among potential partial explanations for this supposed paradox, the complex or multidimensional nature of gender in/equality has been pointed out. While attempts to measure and compare country-level gender equality have endeavored to encompass different aspects, such as the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) gender equality index which assembles data pertaining to the six domains of work, money, knowledge, time, power and health, it has been suggested that such indexes do not necessarily give a full picture of all dimensions of gender inequality that are of relevance for IPVAW. Drawing on the six domains considered in the EIGE gender equality index, this study investigates women’s experiences of gender in/equality in violent intimate relationships. Qualitative in-depth interviews were carried out with 23 women exposed to IPVAW in Sweden, and the material was thematically analyzed. Looking at how the women spoke about work, money, knowledge, time, power and health, the study shows that the experienced violence was described as having influenced all of these domains of the women’s lives, sometimes creating pressure towards subordination in ways that may not be congruent with or readily apparent in more quantitative measures of gender equality. In the domain of money, for example, women experienced forms of domination also in cases where they earned as much as, or more than, the violent partner, while in the domain of knowledge, the women’s desired or attained education could provoke violence. In the domain of work, several women were employed but experienced barriers to fulfilling their work tasks due to violence. Violent power dynamics could thus permeate several areas of the women’s lives, affecting their level of empowerment in these domains, including in intimate relationships which may have looked more gender equal on the surface. We conclude that in the women’s accounts, the relationship between gender in/equality and IPVAW in Sweden is complex.