Abstract Background Loneliness is increasingly recognized as a public health issue, with social prescribing gaining global interest as a useful approach to address social needs by connecting patients to non-medical community resources. Occupational therapists have previously been recognized as well suited for social prescribing initiatives, yet their role remains underexplored. Aim This study aims to explore occupational therapists’ experiences of a social prescribing model as well as the professions’ role in applying it in Swedish primary care to alleviate loneliness among older adults. Material and Methods Semi-structured individual interviews with 10 occupational therapists were conducted digitally. The data analysis was guided by reflexive thematic analysis. Results The social prescribing model was perceived as potentially valuable to address loneliness among older adults in primary care. While occupational therapists felt that their professional expertise positioned them well to contribute to the approach, they also identified important constraints that limited their capacity in their role as social prescribers. Conclusion/Significance To realize the social prescribing model’s potential in Swedish primary care, the complexity of loneliness and social activities must be acknowledged. Efforts are also needed to lower thresholds for social participation, and fostering collaboration across organizational and professional boundaries.

Social prescribing has gained attention internationally as a health-promoting way to address patients' nonmedical needs, yet research in the Nordic healthcare context remains limited. This theory-informed process evaluation set out to unpack the early implementation of a social prescribing model in Swedish primary care, developed to reduce loneliness and promote health among older adults. Guided by Normalization Process Theory (NPT) and the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR), this study assessed how and under what conditions the model was implemented across 10 primary care centres between May 2023 and December 2024. Data were triangulated from interviews with prescribers and patients, alongside prescribing and follow-up materials. Thematic analysis indicated that while the approach was perceived as relevant and timely, implementation was hindered by a selective use of the routine screening question and lack of person-centredness in the prescribing process, reflecting poor fidelity to core principles. Leadership engagement and managerial support that appeared symbolic rather than active further constrained implementation by limiting integration into organizational workflows, rendering the approach peripheral or optional to other clinical and statutory tasks. The model's operationalization also lacked alignment with community resources and bridging structures, limiting implementation by failing to meet patients' needs and expectations. While the Swedish social prescribing approach aligns with national policy discourse and prescribers' values, its scale-up will require clearer guidance on components needing high-fidelity delivery, necessary organizational structures, accessible local resources, and mechanisms linking primary care with the wider community. These findings contribute to the international evidence base on social prescribing and inform refinements of the Swedish model.

Aim Climate change poses increasing risks to outdoor occupations, including construction work. This study explores how vulnerability is constructed in narratives of manual labour within the Swedish construction sector, particularly under extreme weather conditions.Methods Drawing on 16 qualitative interviews with Swedish construction workers, the study adopts a social constructionist lens to explore how vulnerability is shaped and experienced.Findings The findings identify multiple, intersecting forms of vulnerability-bodily, hierarchical, material, social, and market-driven-exacerbated by climate-related challenges such as high temperatures, heavy rainfall, and strong winds. Crucially, the analysis highlights how extreme weather disrupts temporal rhythms, widening the gap between scheduled work plans and the actual time needed to complete tasks.Conclusion The paper concludes that vulnerability arises not only from direct exposure to adverse weather, but also through indirect social, material, and temporal dynamics inherent in the construction sector and exacerbated by climate change.

IntroductionPeer-to-peer sharing of personal health data on social media is increasingly used as a strategy to support public health goals. Such sharing is often assumed to motivate individuals to adopt or maintain healthy behaviors. However, the social and ethical implications of sharing-based interventions remain insufficiently examined. This paper offers an empirical and theoretical contribution by foregrounding the socio-technical contexts of sharing and analyzing how sharing-based interventions may drive social change. Building on these insights, it also outlines ethical considerations for researchers and stakeholders.MethodWe conducted 22 semi-structured interviews with participants in a regional public health intervention in Sweden. Interviews focused on participants' experiences of receiving personal health data and their reflections on sharing such data on social media. Analysis was guided by reflexive thematic analysis and informed by theoretical perspectives on the socio-technical embeddedness of health data and sharing practices.ResultsParticipants understood health data as both personal and communal. Although many expressed discomfort with disclosing sensitive health information online, the peer-to-peer sharing model fostered a perceived moral obligation to share data for collective benefit.DiscussionThe tension between personal boundaries and perceived communal obligations raises important ethical concerns, particularly when individuals feel pressured to share data they would prefer to keep private. Our findings underscore the need for ethical frameworks that address social pressures, consent, and the emotional dimensions of data sharing. To support sustainable and ethical public health practices, further qualitative research is essential—particularly to understand how individuals navigate obligations and risks in technology-mediated care, and how these dynamics shape values such as autonomy, well-being, and collective responsibility.

This study explores the socio-spatial dynamics surrounding the creation and perception of Sara kulturhus, a flagship cultural centre in Skellefteå, Sweden. While initially being framed within a discourse of urban attractivity, the project later became entangled with narratives of green transition following the establishment of the Northvolt battery factory, which came to influence meaning-making. Drawing on interviews with local actors within the local cultural scene and an analysis of municipal documents, this study describes this process. The study demonstrates how the cultural centre became a site of negotiation between commercial and independent cultural values – celebrated as a symbol of progress yet criticised for centralising cultural resources and marginalising grassroots initiatives – while also revealing strategic rebranding efforts aimed at aligning with green transition objectives. Additionally, it reveals gendered concerns surrounding rapid industrialisation and the perceived role of culture in mitigating emerging social tensions. Ultimately, the study illustrates how flagship projects in peripheral regions are shaped by evolving discourses, local identity, and broader political-economic transformations; particularly how a discourse on ‘green transition’ stretched far beyond the industrial investments.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE:Loneliness is a complex public health issue that can lead to increased morbidity, with higher prevalence among older adults. Social prescribing may be one way to ease loneliness. This study aims to explore stakeholders' perceptions of prerequisites for implementing a social prescribing program in a Swedish context. METHOD:Reflexive thematic analysis was used to analyse individual semi-structured interviews with eleven stakeholders whose experience were considered relevant for implementing a social prescribing program in the Swedish context. They were selected to provide diverse perspectives related to organisation, position, and geography. RESULTS:From the analysis three themes were constructed; Where to implement - Necessity to bridge organisational gaps, How to implement - Balancing professional expectations, and For whom to implement - Addressing those with 'real' needs. These themes highlight the perceived prerequisites, including barriers and facilitators, for successful implementation of social prescribing. CONCLUSIONS:The participants' perceptions are suggesting that Sweden has several practical advantages in place for implementing social prescribing, such as robust organisations responsible for citizens' health and well-being and a range of activities available. If organisations can collaborate by prioritizing patients' needs and overcoming organisational divisions and responsibilities, there is potential for successfully implementing social prescribing in Sweden in the future. Nevertheless, implementation may be hampered by limited resources within health care, and challenges to evaluate program effects.

This article utilizes news media representations to scrutinize the symbolic construction and legitimizing support for green megaprojects, with a particular focus on Northvolt's battery factory in Skellefte & aring;, Sweden. The study reveals that the media portrayed the project as crucial for local development, driven by Northvolt's explicit competition, Sweden's national ambition to lead in green technology, and a neoliberal agenda for regional economic growth. These narratives, deeply rooted in ideological fantasies about the implications of such a megaproject for a small, struggling community, effectively suppressed concerns about colonialism, environmental risks, and indigenous rights. The media's emphasis on perceived benefits overshadowed potential risks, prompting questions about the long-term impact of such projects on local communities and the environment. The article argues that while these investments are framed as opportunities for progress, they may perpetuate historical patterns of exploitation and overlook critical socio-environmental issues.

Celebrations of local volunteering as a way to cope with cutbacks are frequent. Not least are such celebrations apparent within the media, where descriptions of local initiatives are sometimes seen as the solutions to downward spiralling trends in Swedish rural areas. The paper explores the media production of meaning around rural resilience as they covered initiatives where rural populations mobilised to ‘save’ threatened local service for their supposed public interest. Using the concepts of ‘patchy resilience’ and ‘cruel optimism’, the paper points at how the representations attach rural areas and identities to a stereotypical rural imagery while also representing a resilience ideal that risks glorifying neoliberal responsibilisation.

PURPOSE:As sharing on social media has become an integrated part of everyday life, health and public health actors have started to show interest in the potential of people's peer-to-peer sharing of health-related personal information (HRI) for health interventions. In this article we focus on how people make sense of sharing HRI on social media. METHODS:Twenty-two people between the ages 40 and 60 who had taken part in a regional health intervention were interviewed. Using theories about social media sharing, we explore their understandings and negotiations about whether, how much, and how to share HRI and discuss the results in relation to peer-to-peer sharing as a strategy in interventions. RESULTS:We identified three aspects that were perceived as particularly risky: loss of control, effects on identity, and affecting others negatively, along with strategies that were used to manage risks in practice: avoiding sharing, allocating, and embedding HRI. CONCLUSIONS:By allocating and embedding HRI, people can unlock motivating affordances for health work. However, strategies to manage risks can also be counterproductive. For actors to provide equality in health promotion, initiatives that include social media sharing need to be mindful of the sometimes counterproductive effects this may have on people's engagement.

AimsThe aim of this study was to identify and evaluate critical components within social prescribing programmes that can impact loneliness, health, or well-being among older adults.MethodsA systematic review with a narrative synthesis was conducted by systematically searching five databases. A total of 1193 hits were identified, screened, and assessed. Twelve studies were included, with data being extracted and deductively analysed in an iterative manner and then tabulated together with outcomes in order to find common narratives.ResultsThree critical components were identified: Assessment before prescription, matching participants with relevant activities, and individualised support from link worker. These critical components seemed important for the success of social prescribing programmes since they had an impact on loneliness, health, and well-being. All together, these results highlight the importance of person-centeredness in the prescribing process.ConclusionsThe three critical components identified may prove useful in further research, evaluation, or implementation of social prescribing programmes. Important aspects for further evaluation are discussed.

As a consequence of cutbacks in the welfare sector, rural populations have reacted to their situation by taking over and operating activities that are threatened by closures, such as schools, grocery stores and health centres, for themselves. Such initiatives are often referred to as examples of rural resilience. Drawing on interviews, this paper explores participants' narratives about rural initiatives aiming to retain and develop local welfare and community services. It pays specific heed to how notions of resilience reside within the narratives – the ideological convictions and challenges they entail, and the practices they make (im)possible. The study shows that participants’ narratives about resilient villages and initiatives indirectly support the neoliberal rural policy focus on regional responsibility to create growth. It argues that, in order to understand the appeal of the neoliberal positions and practices that resilience thinking proved to entail, it is important to recognise the intersections of space and identity, and to explore the local spatial experiences and imageries in relation to which resilience practices appear desirable and necessary, as well as the specific rural identities that resilience discourse supports.

Quality of care is determined not only by political decisions but also by how those policies are understood and managed by professionals when put into action. Home care services, the most common form of elder care in Sweden today, should include social support, which is very important for health and wellbeing. And yet, support for social participation seems to be lacking. Understanding prevalent social constructs and their possible impacts on focus and content of social practice in home care could reveal ways to address social support in home care. Therefore, this article highlights how professionals in home care provision talk about older home care recipients' loneliness and social needs, and how these repertoires are related to professionals' opportunities and obligations to support those social needs. The study included 22 persons from different professions in home care provision, from two municipalities in northern Sweden. Nine individual interviews and four group interviews were conducted, recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using a discourse psychology approach. The results show two interpretative repertoires in which notions of otherness and likeness guided definitions and support regarding loneliness, social needs, and social support. This study reveals assumptions that underpin and structure the practices of home care. As the interpretative repertoires provided differing and partly opposing views on how to provide social support and combat loneliness, it seems important to also address the broader issues of professional identities and how loneliness is defined and approached.

The implementation of digital healthcare technologies—eHealth—is presented as a solution to increasing costs, demographic changes, and quality issues in rural healthcare. Employing the concept of affective atmospheres, this article uses interviews to explore the emotional aspects of digital healthcare among rural persons of advanced age. Our results suggest that participants were clearly influenced by an affective atmosphere that was deeply embedded in spatial imageries as well as in notions of old age. Strong feelings of resignation, necessity, low entitlement, and defiance tended to encourage participants’ wishes for local face-to-face healthcare to translate into viewing eHealth solutions as positive. This also meant that participants came to enact neoliberal identities of “active ageing”. In conclusion, the concept of affective atmospheres highlights how human subjects and digital materialities interact in the production of human emotional responses to digital healthcare technologies, and emphasises how the conditions and shared imageries of geographic space and age are active components in that process.

Introduction: The Västerbotten Intervention Programme (VIP) in the Region Västerbotten Sweden is one of the very few cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention programmes globally that is integrated into routine primary health care. The VIP has been shown as a cost-effective intervention to significantly reduce CVD mortality. However, little is known about the effectiveness of a digital solution to tailor risk communication strategies for supporting behavioral change. STAR-C aims to develop and evaluate a technical platform for personalized digital coaching that will support behavioral change aimed at preventing CVD. Methods: STAR-C employs a mixed-methods design in seven multidisciplinary projects, which runs in two phases during 2019–2024: (i) a formative intervention design and development phase, and (ii) an intervention implementation and evaluation phase. In the 1st phase, STAR-C will model the trajectories of health behaviors and their impact on CVDs (Project 1), evaluate the role of the social environment and social networks on behavioral change (Project 2) and assess whether and how social media facilitates the spread of health information beyond targeted individuals and stimulates public engagement in health promotion (Project 3). The findings will be utilized in carrying out the iterative, user-centered design, and development of a person-tailored digital coaching platform (Project 4). In the 2nd phase, STAR-C will evaluate the implementation of the coaching programme and its effectiveness for promoting behavioral change and the spreading of health information across social networks and via social media (Project 5). The cost-effectiveness (Project 6) and ethical issues (Project 7) related to the coaching programme intervention will be evaluated. Discussion: The STAR-C research programme will address the knowledge and practice research gaps in the use of information technologies in health promotion and non-communicable disease (NCD) prevention programmes in order to narrow the health inequality gaps. Ethics: STAR-C has received approval from the Swedish Ethical Review Authority (Dnr. 2019-02924;2020-02985). Dissemination: The collaboration between Umeå University and Region Västerbotten will ensure the feasibility of STAR-C in the service delivery context. Results will be communicated with decision-makers at different levels of society, stakeholders from other regions and healthcare professional organizations, and through NGOs, local and social media platforms.

Introduction: Loneliness and social isolation among older adults (≥65) are an emerging issue of public concern, associated with increased morbidity and mortality. Today there is no systematic intervention developed, implemented or evaluated in Sweden addressing loneliness. The overall aim for this project is to develop, test and refine a person-centred Swedish model for social prescribing (SPiS), and to assess whether and how it reduces loneliness, promotes health and improves well-being among older adults. Description: The focus will be to develop, culturally adapt, evaluate and refine the SPiS model. Following the sequential structure of realist evaluation in three consecutive phases qualitative and quantitative data along with subsequent analysis methods will be collected and utilized. The project will provide knowledge of what works with the social prescribing model, for whom, in what conditions and why, in relation to loneliness, health and well-being among older adults. Discussion: SPiS has the unique position of providing initial knowledge regarding how to reduce loneliness in the Swedish context. However, evaluation is complex as this research goes beyond the unidimensional question “Is it working?”. Conclusion: Developing, implementing and evaluating such a complex program needs systematic and close evaluation.

This article analyses the coverage of the #MeToo movement in Swedish news media. The aim of the study was to explore how men and masculinity were represented. The results showed that masculinity was associated with violence, harassment, and a culture of abuse, as well as with progressive ideas of a “new man” that is both strong and gentle at the same time. The article discusses how the represented masculinities might be problematic in relation to the #MeToo movement’s ambition to reform a sexist society because of the stereotypical and gender-dualistic tendencies that permeate the material and the tendencies to individualize the represented assaults and perpetrators.

How do politicians make sense of situations in which they may find themselves caught up in between opposing loyalties, for example, party loyalty on the one hand and loyalty to neighbours and friends or ideological convictions on the other? Based on interviews about a rural occupation in protest of a political decision in a small community in Northern Sweden, this paper explores the approaches of local politicians to the protest and to the people involved in it. The results show how discourses of geographic space and party-political loyalty structured the negotiated responsibility for the situation, affected the politicians’ descriptions of the occupation as such, and made support for the protest become more or less difficult.

The use of healthcare apps for medical advice is becoming increasingly common. This paper explores apps that offer interaction with medical experts. Working from the supposition that digital technologies are intimately entangled in their cultural context, we argue that the apps do more than just neutrally mediate contacts and offer medical and psychological advice. The article addresses the cultural dimensions of healthcare apps and answers questions about the ways in which such apps contribute to forming changing notions of what “healthcare” and being a “patient” entail. Three popular Swedish apps and their marketing material is studied using a discursive interface analysis of the apps’ affordances. The results show that the apps significantly contribute to producing a marketable narrative about app health care that includes accessibility, security/safety and personalisation, and which is partly produced as an alternative to what is offered by Swedish public health care. The results further show that this narrative primarily represents and addresses users who are young, busy, urban consumers of care – partly contrasting policy expectations and hopes.

What happens when similar measures are being introduced in different national contexts? This article studies the ways in which patient choice has been articulated in public and official reports on health care in the two contexts of Sweden and the UK, whose welfare systems are typically comprehended as different. Specific interest is directed towards the construction of patient positions, and policy documents are analyzed using discourse theory. The results show many similarities between the national contexts; choice is primarily articulated with individuality, autonomy, consumption, and responsibility, as well as with support from state agencies, and patient choice is relentlessly normalized as the way forward. But there are also important differences that reveal that the presuppositions differ, for example, when pinpointing the stakeholders of patient choice reforms and how the different policies work to take the well-known edges off of patient choice ideology.