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So far, little research has been done on the risk of children being seriously affected by COVID-19 when the schools were open. A study from Karolinska Institutet has now shown that one child in 130,000 was treated in an intensive care unit on account of COVID-19 during the period March-June. The work has been published as a letter to the editor in New England Journal of Medicine.

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), or nasopharynx cancer, is a malignant disease characterized by unique geographic distribution endemic to southern China, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East/North Africa. It is known that the interaction of Epstein-Barr Virus infection, environmental and lifestyle factors, and genetic susceptibility, contributes to NPC carcinogenesis.

Shihua Sun has investigated the associations between attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and specific adverse outcomes including asthma and premature death. In his thesis, Shihua included four studies to clarify the magnitude and etiology of the associations, as well as potential effects from medication treatment that may prevent poor prognosis.

In her thesis, Shadi Azam studied the association between established breast cancer risk factors with mammographic density change over time and mammographic microcalcifications by using data from the prospective KARMA cohort.

Thirteen researchers connected to Karolinska Institutet are on the 2020 list of highly cited researchers presented by Clarivate, the company behind Web of Science.

Recent data suggest that adults may experience long-term symptoms after COVID-19 infection, but if such symptoms also occur in children is still unknown. Children tend to have milder COVID-19 than adults, but in a case-report from Sweden, Professor and pediatrician Jonas F Ludvigsson describes five children with potential “long COVID”. These findings, together with a systematic review of long COVID in children, are published in the journal Acta Paediatrica.

Early-life events, such as the exposure to air pollutants, increases the risk of chronic lung disease in young adulthood, according to new results by researchers at Karolinska Institutet, Sweden, published in the European Respiratory Journal and Thorax. The studies add to the growing evidence that chronic lung disease in adulthood can be traced back to childhood.

A new paper shows that differences in plasma protein biomarker levels are controlled by hundreds of genetic variants across the human genome, and that these insights can be used to predict which drug targets that are likely to be effective future medicines. The study has been published in the October issue of Nature Metabolism.

“An important finding of the study was that any type of parental mental illness strongly increased the risk of childhood socioeconomic adversity.” says Kyriaki Kosidou, researcher at KI and corresponding author of the newly published article about parental mental illness and its association with socioeconomic adversity among children in Sweden.

In her thesis, Camilla Wiklund aims to extend the knowledge about the relationship among body mass index (BMI), gastrointestinal complaints, and diet, and how these factors contribute to the emergence and maintenance of eating disorders.

Among women participating in cervical cancer screening in Sweden, those with a diagnosis of invasive cervical cancer had an increased risk of iatrogenic injuries (as a consequence of medical intervention) and non-iatrogenic injuries (caused by accidents and self-harm) requiring hospitalization, according to results published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention.

A comprehensive comparison of cancer survival between the Nordic countries shows improvements for all countries over time with previously observed differences attenuated. The reasons for these improvements are likely multifactorial. Previous studies comparing cancer survival between the Nordic countries have found marked differences, with a notably poorer survival in Danish patients.

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, NAFLD, affects nearly one in four adults in Europe and the U.S. Earlier research has demonstrated an increased risk of death in patients with NAFLD and advanced fibrosis or cirrhosis. Now, researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and Massachusetts General Hospital in the U.S. show that mortality increases with disease severity, but even mild fatty liver disease is linked to higher mortality. The findings have been published in the scientific journal Gut.

In a study published in JAMA researchers at Karolinska Institutet and Karolinska University Hospital have examined the association between a positive SARS-CoV-2 test during pregnancy and complications in mothers and their newborn babies. Almost two out of three pregnant women who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 were asymptomatic and the researchers found no higher prevalence of complications during delivery or of ill-health in the neonates. However, preeclampsia was more common in infected women.

Sweden chose a different pandemic strategy than its peer nations. This included the timing of pandemic-related actions, how parts of the healthcare system reacted to the pandemic, the legal framework for the relationship between the Government and other actors and actions taken with regard to schools. In a paper published in Acta Paediatrica, Professor Jonas F Ludvigsson presents a detailed timeline on how Sweden tackled COVID-19 during the eight months up to 1 September, 2020.

In his thesis, Emilio Ugalde Morales uses a molecular epidemiology approach to investigate the association between risk factors and aggressive breast cancer defined by tumor characteristics, intrinsic subtypes, mode of detection, and survival.

Two recent studies were unable to rule out that H1N1 (“swine flu”) vaccination (“Pandemrix”) and seasonal influenza vaccination given to pregnant women might be associated with autism spectrum disorder in the offspring. Now, a large study by researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, published in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine, refutes any such association.

At the moment we live in an era where it is easier to generate data than to interpret them. The focus of Zheng Ning’s thesis is on methodology and analysis to exploit novel biological knowledge from published results of genome-wide association study (GWAS).

New research from Karolinska Institutet shows that the degree of frailty, a measure of a person’s functional level before contracting the disease, can better predict COVID-19 survival than the patient’s age. The analysis of 250 multimorbid older adults who received care for COVID-19 at the Aging Theme at Karolinska University Hospital in Huddinge, Sweden also shows that three out of four of these patients survived. The study has been published in the scientific journal JAMDA.

Through a unique database, KI researchers have studied the risk of small bowel cancer in individuals with celiac disease. Principal investigator Louise Emilsson, affiliated researcher at the Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, associate professor at HELSAM, Oslo University and co-author Jonas F Ludvigsson, professor at Karolinska Institutet, reflect on their work recently published in Gastroenterology.

The vitality of preterm infants should be assessed with an Apgar score, a tool used to measure the health of newborns immediately after birth. That is the conclusion by researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden who in a large observational study examined the value of Apgar scores for preterm infants. The findings are published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

In a population-based cohort study from Sweden and Denmark of patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) during 1969-2017 and matched reference individuals from the general population, Ola Olén, Jonas F Ludvigsson and colleagues found that IBD patients had an increased risk of small bowel cancer.

The focus of Isabella Ekheden's thesis is on gastric and esophageal cancer – gastroesophageal cancers - that are some of the most fatal malignancies in the world. Understanding the cause of these diseases is key to interventions such as primary prevention and/or surveillance with the potential of lowering the disease burden.

It is highly likely that children can transmit the new coronavirus, which causes COVID-19, but several factors suggest that children are unlikely to be the main drivers of the pandemic. Opening up schools and kindergartens is unlikely to impact COVID-19 mortality rates in older people, according to a systematic review that spanned 47 publications and was conducted by researchers at Karolinska Institutet. The paper is published in the scientific journal Acta Paediatrica.

The focus of Johanna Sieurin's thesis was to investigate the relationship of personality and stress with subsequent risk of Parkinson’s disease (PD).

The objective of Peter's thesis is to develop and improve technologies for prostate cancer diagnostics and to acquire knowledge related to these technologies that directly translate to clinical utility.

People with celiac disease have increased risk of dying prematurely, despite increased awareness of the disease in recent years and better access to gluten-free food. This is according to a new study from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and Columbia University in the U.S. published in the prestigious journal JAMA. Celiac disease was linked to increased risk of death from cardiovascular disease, cancer and respiratory disease.

Qing Shen’s thesis aims to increase our understanding of cancer diagnostic workup, by investigating different stress-related health outcomes during the critical time period of cancer evaluation, diagnosis and treatment, and also provide evidence for a potential effective treatment approach to attenuate excessive risks of stress-related health outcomes.

Some mammographic features - breast density, microcalcifications, and masses - are associated with increased breast cancer risk

Children infected with the new coronavirus generally have less severe symptoms than adults, they rarely need intensive care and very few child deaths have been reported. This according to a systematic review of COVID-19 in children, based on 45 relevant publications and performed by researchers at Karolinska Institutet. The review is published in the scientific journal Acta Paediatrica.

Patients with polyps have a higher risk of colorectal cancer, and those with sessile serrated polyps, tubulovillous adenomas, and villous adenomas had a higher colorectal cancer mortality.

Jiayao Lei’s thesis addresses research questions on prevention and prognosis of cervical cancer within the framework of the interplay of human papillomavirus (HPV), vaccination, and cervical screening, and also provides insights for evidence-based decision-making.

In her thesis, Ninoa Malki concludes that socioeconomic differences are associated with both incidence and mortality of cardiovascular disease in Sweden.

Researchers from Karolinska Institutet, Örebro University and Aarhus University, Denmark, have published the largest study to date on the risk of colorectal cancer in Crohn's disease. The article is published in the journal The Lancet Gastroenterology Hepatology.

People age in different ways. Biological age is a metric that scientists use to predict health risks, the relevance of which can be enhanced by combining different markers. Particularly important markers are frailty and the epigenetic clock, write researchers from Karolinska Institutet in a study published in eLife.

The Swedish organisation Psykiatrifonden has just announced which projects will receive research funding by money earmarked for suicide preventative research donated by Suicide Zero. Lotfi Khemiri at Karolinska Institutet is responsible for one of the projects and is studying the connection between substance abuse and risk of suicide.

On Friday January 31, Yunzhang Wang will defend his thesis "DNA methylation and aging : a longitudinal study of old Swedish twins".

On Friday December 18, Elisa Longinetti will defend her thesis "Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and multiple sclerosis associated neuroinflammation: nationwide epidemiological studies on etiology, comorbidities, and treatment"

On Friday December 6, 2019 Cecilia Radkiewicz defended her thesis "Sex differences in cancer risk and survival".

On Tuesday December 10, Gabriel Isheden will defend his thesis Statistical models of breast cancer tumour growth and spread".

Those with a family history of schizophrenia and men with lower IQ are more likely to struggle with treatment resistant schizophrenia than others with the mental disorder, according to a study by researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry. The researchers say the findings could be important in efforts to design novel drug treatments that improve cognition.

On October 7, Dr Jonas F Ludvigsson will make his first appearance as the ”in-house pediatrician” of Swedish television TV4. He will participate regularly in the television show ”Malou efter tio” to discuss health and disease in children.

Title: The comorbidity between attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and other neurodevelopmental disorders: aetiology, treatment and outcomes

Title: Risk prediction in prostate cancer diagnostics : current challenges and improvements

Title: Socioeconomic influences on late-life health and mortality : exploring genetic and environmental interplay 

A group of biostatistical scientists at the Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics (MEB) have been awarded a research environment grant of SEK 13 million from the Swedish Research Council for research into the development and application of statistical methods for register-based research.

The paper's motto was: ”Among women with diabetes and high HbA1c, there is a risk that the fetus too early the outside world will see”

The winning study was led by Professor Jonas F Ludvigsson, Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, KI, and shows that pregnant women with type 1 diabetes are at increased risk of pregnancy complications, including preterm birth. With increasing HbA1c the risk of preterm birth increased further.

Fat-soluble statins can prevent liver cancer and reduce mortality in patients with chronic viral hepatitis. These are findings from a study conducted by researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, among others. The study is published in Annals of Internal Medicine.

Children with Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) run a greater risk of psychiatric disorders, according to a new study from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden published in JAMA Pediatrics. The researchers claim that more psychological support and longer follow-up is needed for the children affected and their parents.

Psychiatric comorbidity may play an important role in the increased risk of premature death in people with ADHD (attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder), according to a new extensive registry study conducted at Karolinska Institutet and Örebro University in Sweden. The results, which are published in JAMA Psychiatry, suggest that improved awareness and care of psychiatric comorbidities such as substance use disorders may help reduce serious outcomes associated with ADHD.