Principal Investigator Britt Elin Øiestad

PhD Students Henriette Jahre, Kaja Smedbråten

Collaborators Margreth Grotle (Oslo Metropolitan University), Milada Cvancarova Småstuen (Oslo Metropolitan University), Kjersti Storheim (Oslo University Hospital and Oslo Metropolitan University), Synne Stensland (Oslo University Hospital, Norwegian Centre for Violence & Traumatic Stress Studies), Pierre Cote (Ontario Tech University, Canada), Kate Dunn (Keele University, UK), Eva Skillgate (Karolinska Institute, Sweden), George Peat (Sheffield Hallam University, UK)

The overall objective to The HEYoung Study is to identify risk factors, risk profiles, and risk trajectories for mental and musculoskeletal disorders in young adults. The study will be carried out in three Work Packages (WPs). The aim of WP1 was to summarize existing literature on risk factors for mental and musculoskeletal pain in adolescents and young adults. Two systematic reviews are published: “Risk factors for episodes of back pain in emerging adults. A systematic review” and “Risk factors for non-specific neck pain in young adults: a systematic review”.

The objective of WP2 is to identify risk factors and risk profiles for mental and musculoskeletal disorders using data on adolescents and young adults from existing Norwegian data. One PhD student (Henriette Jahre) have published three papers using data from The HUNT study, Ungdata, and the Fit Futures study to investigate prevalence and risk factors for neck and musculoskeletal pain in adolescents and young adults. She defended her Thesis “Prevalence and risk factors for neck and musculoskeletal pain in adolescents and young adults” in May -22. One PhD student (Kaja Smedbråten) have published two papers using data from the HUNT study and The Fit Future Study investigating lifestyle behavior and comorbidities in relation to musculoskeletal pain in adolescents and young adults. She is currently working with data from the SHot survey to investigate risk factors for musculoskeletal pain in young adults. WP3 consists of a cross-sectional study collecting data on health and life style in adolescents in high-schools in the greater Oslo area.