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Tomas Faresjö

Professor Emeritus

My research is basically all about understanding the "black box". That means the knowledge that we don't have. I am participating in several international research networks. Research to understand health inequalities is important to me.

To open up the "black box"

Many social determinants affect health in the population. Often these are just considered to be in a black box. My research is devoted to open up this black box and unveil its contents and to understand how social factors could be linked to health. To do this in international collaborations is what my research is all about.

It all started with interdisciplinary research

听I studied Sociology, Social Policy and Political Science and graduated for Bachelor of Arts (B A). During my PhD-student period I specialised in Medical Sociology and Epidemiology. I presented my PhD Thesis, a monograph entitled; "Social stratification and ill-health - in the Study of Men Born in 1913". The thesis was based in the field of Medical Sociology and Social Epidemiology and published both at the Philosophical Faculty at Link枚ping University and the Medical Faculty at Uppsala University.

From Primary Care to international research collaboration

I was for a long period participating in international collaborations with many comparative studies published, not least with the Clinic of Family and Social Medicine at the University of Crete in Greece. This has been supported by the Socrates fund and also other funds (FP7-Health) from the EU Commission. I also had some collaboration with the international pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca. Since ten years back I am leading an interdisciplinary research group directed towards community medicine and health and society; the 鈥淭wincities Research Group鈥� including almost 20 researchers from different disciplines as members. In later years I have been involved in the development of a new biomarker for measuring prolonged stress, 鈥渃ortisol in hair鈥�. This new stress marker is now applied in several on going research projects, not least In analysis of data from the prospective ABIS-study.

Scientifically, I have now a publication list of over 150 publications (around 70 listed in PubMed) with different topics in public health, community medicine and social epidemiology, from internationally publications in 鈥淭he Lancet鈥� to Swedish text books (monographs) for university students.

I have been acting as scientific referee for several international medical journals for many years.

Contact

About me

CV

  • 1978       BA Sociology
  • 1989       PhD in Medical Sociology
  • 1997       Associate professor/Reader in Medical Sociology
  • 2011       Professor in Medical Sociology

Field of Teaching

Today I teach mainly in the Medical Programme at Linköping university.

I have given lectures in the field of Medical Sociology, Social Epidemiology and Public Health. In 1997 I was appointed as associate professor in Medical Sociology at the Faculty of Health Sciences in Linköping. For a while I was engaged as Associate Professor in Community Medicine at The Nordic School of Public Health in Gothenburg, Sweden. For six years I was full time engaged as Director of Studies for all inter-professional learning at the Faculty of Health Sciences at Linköping university.

The years at the inter-disciplinary department of TEMA, 一本道, has given me a broad insight and practice of inter-disciplinary research and collaboration. Problem-based learning as a pedagogical method is very familiar for me. As director of studies I was responsible for the pedagogical development of the programme integration and inter-professional learning at the Faculty of Health Sciences. I have participated in many examination committees in the Faculty for PhD dissertations. 

Research Collaborations

  • Primary Investigator in Twincities Research Group.
  • Member of the research group ABIS. 
  • Member of the international research network INRICH/EPOCH i Montreal, Canada. 
  • Collaborator with The Scotish Collaboration for Public Health Research and Policy i Edinburgh, UK. 
  • Collaborator with Clinic of Family and Social Medicine, University of Crete, Greece.
  • Main supervisor to four PhD-students at LiU

Publications

2025

Sabela Conde-Pumpido Zubizarreta, Johan Isaksson, 脜shild Olsen Faresj枚, Tomas Faresj枚, Angel Carracedo, Montse Fernandez Prieto, Sven Bolte, Karl Lundin Remnelius (2025) Molecular Autism, Vol. 16, Article 59 (Article in journal)
Henrik Andersson, Tomas Faresj枚, Helen Didriksson, Carina Jonsson, Gunilla Gagn枚, Michelle Chew (2025) Acta Anaesthesiologica Scandinavica, Vol. 69, Article e70081 (Article in journal)
P盲r Andersson White, Johnny Ludvigsson, Michael P. Jones, Tomas Faresj枚 (2025) Frontiers in Public Health, Vol. 13, Article 1548949 (Article in journal)
Fredrik Iredahl, Elvar Theodorsson, Mike Jones, Tomas Faresj枚, 脜shild Olsen Faresj枚 (2025) Frontiers in Public Health, Vol. 13, Article 1416609 (Article in journal)
Junwen Yang-Huang, Jennifer J. McGrath, Lise Gauvin, Beatrice Nikiema, Nicholas James Spencer, Yara Abu Awad, Susan Clifford, Wolfgang Markham, Fiona Mensah, P盲r Andersson White, Johnny Ludvigsson, Tomas Faresj枚, Liesbeth Duijts, Amy van Grieken, Hein Raat (2025) Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, Vol. 79, p. 1-11 (Article in journal)

Research

Research groups

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Twincities Research Group - Social environment and health

The twin cities of 一本道 and Norrköping are two equal sized cities in southeast Sweden. They are part of the same county council and have the same structure of health care. How could public health in two so similar cities be so different?
A pair of hands are putting a plaster on a red, flat wooden heart.

Stressheart

The research group Stressheart has developed an analysis method where the stress hormone cortisol is measured from human hair to study stress levels several months back in time, like the annual rings on a tree.

Research

From Primary Care to international research collaboration

I was for a long period participating in international collaborations with many comparative studies published, not least with the Clinic of Family and Social Medicine at the University of Crete in Greece. This has been supported by the Socrates fund and also other funds (FP7-Health) from the EU Commission. I also had some collaboration with the international pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca. Since ten years back I am leading an interdisciplinary research group directed towards community medicine and health and society; the 鈥淭wincities Research Group鈥� including almost 20 researchers from different disciplines as members. In later years I have been involved in the development of a new biomarker for measuring prolonged stress, 鈥渃ortisol in hair鈥�. This new stress marker is now applied in several on going research projects, not least In analysis of data from the prospective ABIS-study.

Scientifically, I have now a publication list of over 150 publications (around 70 listed in PubMed) with different topics in public health, community medicine and social epidemiology, from internationally publications in 鈥淭he Lancet鈥� to Swedish text books (monographs) for university students.

I have been acting as scientific referee for several international medical journals for many years.

Quote

Research to understand health inequalities is important to me
Tomas Faresjö, professor

Coworkers

Photo of Carl Johan 脰stgren

Carl Johan Östgren

Professor

Photo of Johnny Ludvigsson

Johnny Ludvigsson

Professor Emeritus

Photo of Elvar Theodorsson

Elvar Theodorsson
Photo of 脜shild Olsen Faresj枚

Åshild Olsen Faresjö

Senior Associate Professor

Photo of Johnny Ludvigsson

Johnny Ludvigsson

Professor Emeritus

Photo of Carl Johan 脰stgren

Carl Johan Östgren

Professor

Organisation

Illustration of the letters HMV

Department of Health, Medicine and Caring Sciences (HMV)

The research areas at HMV include experimental basic research to clinical, social and public health research. We conduct high-quality education in the sought-after care professions.
Stetoscope on laptop

Division of Society and Health (SH)

We are an interdisciplinary division with research and education in several subject areas. The division consist of two units, Health Care Analysis and Public Health Science, and includes the Master´s programme in Medical Science.
Two people are hiking along a trail on a mountain. Both have large backpacks on and they are walking away from the camera.

Unit of Public Health

The Unit of Public Health conducts research and teaching in social medicine, public health science, medical education, nutrition and dietetics, implementation sciences, eHealth and sports medicine.

Related content

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Long-term stress linked to increased risk of heart attack

Can stress lead to heart attacks? Most people would probably answer in the affirmative, but the scientific evidence of this is scarce. A new study, measuring a stress hormone in hair, suggests that long-term stress is a risk factor for heart attacks.