Group description: 

We apply a life course approach when studying the causation, care and prevention of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular complications, and the social and ethnic differences in health. The group members have a diverse professional background, facilitating synergies and convergence in research. We have performed cross-sectional and cohort studies, qualitative studies, an RCT using new technology, systematic reviews and meta-analyses, and are involved in developing culturally sensitive interventions in primary care. The group covers two main areas of research:

  1. The Diabetes Care group – working with type 2 diabetes, its complication, quality of diabetes care in a multiethnic society and strategies for prevention

  2. The Mother and Child Health group – working with the developmental origin of health and disease, not least gestational diabetes and type 2 diabetes, in a Norwegian mother, father and child multiethnic cohort  

Projects:

The Diabetes Care Group

  1. Cardiovascular disease, diabetes and ethnicity, and the quality of diabetes care in a multiethnic general practice population (ROSA 4). Our multiregional Norwegian research group collected data from primary care from 2014 from about 11 500 patients in five counties: Oslo, Akershus, Rogaland, Hordaland and Nordland,  linked with data from Statistics Norway, and data from hospitals in the same areas. One postdoc (Anh Thi Tran, UiO) and three PhD students Kjersti Nøkleby (UiO), Kristina Slåtsve (UiT/UiO) and Åsne Bakke (UiB) are using  these data, and we are now working with plans for new projects and for linkages with National registers.

  2. Innovative Prevention Strategies for type 2 Diabetes in South Asians Living in Europe – the EuroDHYAN project, is an EU-funded effort to target the excessive risk for T2D in South Asian populations in Europe, with partners from Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Norway (UiO; Jenum; NAKMI) www.eurodhyan.eu/. Jenum has submitted a paper with a systematic review and individual data meta-analysis of the findings from relevant behavioural intervention studies, based on all the six eligible trials that were identified, and we have critically evaluated dietary goals employed in current interventions.The final report is now approved by EU.

  3. The Norwegian study in Renewing Health: Stimulating self-management in patients with Type 2 diabetes mellitus through tele-care with the Few Touch application and health counseling - a randomized controlled tria, was developed by Faculty of Health Sciences, Oslo and Akershus University College as part of an EU-funded project. Torbjørnsen has published 4 papers and will soon submit her thesis. 

  4. Follow-up after 16 years of the Romsås in Motion study. Together with partners at Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, Faculty of Education, Arts and Sports, we have applied for linkages with several Norwegian Health Registers to study the incidence of cardiovascular disease and diabetes, and will develop new projects in 2019.

  5. Effectiveness of a nurse-coordinated multi-disciplinary follow-up program in general practice: protocol of a mixed-method complex intervention trial among people with chronic conditions and multi-morbidity (T2DM, pre-diabetes, overweight, frailty or COPD) (postdoc project, Marit Graue PI, Jenum member of Steering committee) was funded in 2018.

  6. The need for drug information about diabetes among Pakistani females in Norway. PhD student Walaa Metwally Ali Abdalaah Abuelmagd plans to submit her thesis in 2019, based on qualitative studies about drug use for diabetes in non-Western women (School of Pharmacy, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences.

  7. Modernizing the GP scheme: towards sustainable health policy. PI Prof Oddvar Martin Kaarbøe (Helsam). New project funded by NFR from 2019, AKJ involved in one work package.

The Mother and Child Health group

  1. The STORK-Groruddalen cohort study investigates the role of ethnicity and a range of environmental determinants on the prevalence and development of primarily gestational diabetes (GDM) and intrauterine and childhood growth, www.med.uio.no/helsam/forskning/prosjekter/stork-groruddalen/. Data from 823 pregnant women (59% ethnic minorities), were collected 2008-2011. Ten PhD projects are based on these data; 7 have finished dissertations, one in 2018 (Eggemoen) and others have used these data for one paper in their PhD (2018: Anne Bærug). Four have received postdoc grants (Sletner, Sommer, Eggemoen and Waage). Sletner later received a four-year researcher grant. Further, three PhD projects for general practitioners funded by the Norwegian Medical Association are ongoing (Shakeel (thesis submitted 2019), Toftemo and Næss-Andresen).

  2. Facilitating targeted community prevention of type 2 diabetes – using information from pregnancy and postpartum to identify women at high risk is a follow-up study of STORK G-1 women 10 years after the index pregnancy, funded in 2018 (postdoc Waage). Data collection will hopefully start in May 2019.

  3. Prediction of gestational diabetes from four Norwegian studies (PreGeDiab4N). We have established a new Consortium and after approvals from Regional Ethics Committees linked individual participant data from four Norwegian pregnancy cohorts, first with the aim to develop prediction models to improve screening strategies for gestational diabetes, balancing benefits and harms for women and health care (PhD project Shakil Raj, funded 2018). Second, we will use this data set to develop new sub-projects with other outcomes.

Group members

Anne Karen Jenum, Professor, MD, PhD, MPH

Line Sletner, senior researcher, MD, PhD

Per Lagerløv, pediatrician, Professor, PhD

Idunn Brekke, Professor, PhD

Kåre Rønn-Richardsen, PhD

Christin Wiegels Waage, PhD, postdoc

Anh Thi Tran, MD, PhD, postdoc

Bjørn Gjelsvik, MD, PhD

Tore Julsrud Berg, ass. prof, MD, PhD

Esben Selmer Buhl, MD, PhD

Åse Ruth Eggemoen, MD, PhD, postdoc

Anne B. Bærug, PhD

Nilam Shakeel, PhD student (submitted her thesis on January 11th)

Ingun Toftemo, PhD student

Marthe-Lise Næss-Andresen, PhD student

Kjersti Nøkleby, PhD student

Kristina Slåtsve, PhD student

Astrid Torbjørnsen, PhD student

Walaa Metwally Ali Abdalaah Abuelmagd, PhD student

Elias Nosrati (Cambridge)

Anam Shakil Rai  (PhD funded from 2019)

Mehadi Hasan Bappy (Master student)