Global Health

The Research Unit for Global Health addresses health problems that transcend national boundaries and have political and economic significance globally. We focus on population health in a global context and emphasise on improving health for all, reducing inequalities, and protecting against global threats.

The research unit works with questions such as:

  • What are the biggest global health problems – and how do we measure them?
  • Which factors influence global health?
  • Which interventions are effective in relation to increasing global health?
  • How do we design healthcare systems so as to create the greatest possible amount of health?

We work to address the challenge that health solutions in one country cannot always be copied to the rest of the world. For example, we work in areas with poorly functioning healthcare systems without vital registration, where it is not always possible to diagnose diseases or to describe their significance at population level.

We therefore work to develop simple tools such as e.g. a clinical score which describes the severity of tuberculosis without using complicated laboratory analyses, and we work with complex interventions that at local communal level seek to develop, test and evaluate models for sustainable management of major common diseases.

Methods

We utilise interdisciplinary methods starting from the needs of disadvantaged populations, where capacity-building elements are central. We carry out culturally sensitive population-based studies with local partners and with an interdisciplinary approach.

Our methods include:

  • Randomised controlled clinical trials
  • Cross-sectional, case-control and follow-up studies
  • Survey design and preparation of questionnaires
  • Qualitative studies
  • Systematic literature reviews
  • Demographic models
  • Epidemiology
  • Building population-based registers of the population within the so-called Demographic Surveillance Sites.

In addition, we work with summary goals that summarise the population's health situation, and which can be used for comparative analyses between countries and population groups.

Recent publications

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Kallestrup, P. (2017). We can make it happen. African Journal of Primary Health Care & Family Medicine, 9(1), e1-e2. https://doi.org/10.4102/phcfm.v9i1.1645
Dahl, V., Migliori, G. B., Lange, C. & Wejse, C. (2022). War in Ukraine: an immense threat to the fight against tuberculosis. European Respiratory Journal, 59(4), Article 2200493. https://doi.org/10.1183/13993003.00493-2022
Thorup, L., Kallestrup, P., Koirala, B., Tripathee, A., Neupane, D., Gyawali, B., Hamann, S. A. & Hjortdal, V. E. (2019). Vitamin D Deficiency in rheumatic heart disease patients: A case-control study from Nepal. World Journal for Pediatric and Congenital Heart Surgery, 10(2), NP39.
Thorup, L., Kallestrup, P., Koirala, B., Tripathee, A., Neupane, D., Gyawali, B., Hamann, S. A. & Hjortdal, V. E. (2019). Vitamin D deficiency in rheumatic heart disease patients: A case-control study from Nepal. Poster session presented at 22nd Annual Update on Pediatric and Congenital Cardiovascular Disease, California, United States.
Thorup, L., Kallestrup, P., Koirala, B., Gyawali, B., Neupane, D., Karmacharya, B., Hamann, S. A. & Hjortdal, V. E. (2018). Vitamin D deficiency and nutritional status among rheumatic heart disease patients in Pokhara, Western Nepal. Poster session presented at 28th Annual Meeting, Scandinavian Society for Research in Cardiothoracic Surgery, Geilo, Norway.
Wejse, C., Gomes, V. F., Rabna, P., Gustafson, P., Aaby, P., Lisse, I. M., Andersen, P. L., Glerup, H. & Sodemann, M. (2009). Vitamin D as supplementary treatment for tuberculosis: a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial. American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, 179(9), 843-50. https://doi.org/10.1164/rccm.200804-567OC

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