Research area

Variation at work – measurement methods, physiological effects, interventions in working life

I received my PhD in 1993 from Karolinska Institutet/Arbetslivsinstitutet with a thesis on the physiological effects of different ways of varying physical workload, especially breaks. Since then, I have worked as a researcher at the Working Life Institute, Malmö University and since 2004 I have been employed at CBF, University of Gävle. Until 2020, I was research director of CBF. I was coordinator of the Forte Center "The body at work - from problem to potential" 2009-2021, and have been a member of expert groups at Forte and AFA insurance. 2008-2011 I was principal secretary of the Government's Work Environment Policy Knowledge Council, and currently I am on the board of Forte.

Current research interest

Physical variation is still a main interest: how to express variation in numbers, what are the physiological and psychological effects of different types and sizes of variation, and how to create jobs with appropriate variation that are also profitable for companies? A further important research question, related to variability in workload, is how to design a statistically and resource-efficient strategy for measuring workload.

Keywords: occupational physiology, ergonomics, physical load, fatigue, variability, measurement strategies

Ongoing framework projects

Equal occupational health? Gender, work organization and physical strain in the retail sector
Responsible: Svend Erik Mathiassen

Strategies for collecting data on physical workload
Responsible: Svend Erik Mathiassen

Analysis of cost and efficiency of data collection
Responsible: Svend Erik Mathiassen

Quantification and magnitude of variation in physical workload across occupations
Responsible: Svend Erik Mathiassen

Motor variability in work-related tasks - magnitude and physiological effect
Responsible: Svend Erik Mathiassen

Flexible work and employment arrangements
Responsible: Gunnar Bergström

Collaboration in research projects

Observer variability in different principles for observing work postures

Susanne Wulff Svendsen External link, opens in new window., Danish Ramazzini Center, Department of Occupational Medicine, Herning Hospital
Jens Wahlström External link, opens in new window., Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Umeå University Hospital

From CBF: Per Liv, Marina Heiden

The importance of the normalization procedure in EMG recordings of lumbar strain

From CBF: Jennie Jackson

Comparison of the statistical performance of observations and direct measurements of working postures in hairdressers

Susanne Wulff Svendsen External link, opens in new window., Danish Ramazzini Center, Department of Occupational Medicine, Herning Hospital
Jens Wahlström External link, opens in new window., Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Umeå University Hospital
From CBF: Per Liv, Marina Heiden

PATH method performance in different collection procedures

Laura Punnett, Department of Work Environment, University of Massachusetts Lowell

From CBF: Jennie Jackson, Per Liv

Bias and precision of percentiles of work postures in short-term sampling

Mikael Forsman, Department of Public Health Sciences, Karolinska Institutet
Jens Wahlström External link, opens in new window., Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Umeå University Hospital

Measurement strategies for estimation of variance components

Susanne Wulff Svendsen External link, opens in new window., Danish Ramazzini Center, Department of Occupational Medicine, Herning Hospital

From CBF: Per Liv, Marina Heiden

Cost and efficiency of different procedures for observing work postures from video

Apostolos Bantekas, Faculty of Education and Economics, University of Gävle

From CBF: Mahmoud Rezagholi, Per Liv

Comparison of cost and efficiency of observation and technical measurements of work postures

Apostolos Bantekas, Faculty of Education and Economics, University of Gävle

From CBF: Mahmoud Rezagholi, Per Liv

Development of econometric models for cost-effectiveness analysis

Apostolos Bantekas, Faculty of Education and Economics, University of Gävle

From CBF: Mahmoud Rezagholi, Per Liv

Modeling of heavy manual handling in scaffolding work based on invoice data on scaffold weight and size

Allard van der Beek, VU University Medical Center, EMGO, Amsterdam
Alex Burdorf, Department of Public Health, Erasmus MC University Medical Center, Rotterdam

Cost and effectiveness of recording back strain with self-report, observation and direct measurements

From CBF: Catherine Trask

Cost and effectiveness of assessing work postures of air loaders by self-reporting, observation, direct measurements and modeling

Erik Alphonse External link, opens in new window., Transport Sector Occupational and Work Environment Committee (TYA)
Jens Wahlström External link, opens in new window., Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Umeå University Hospital
Linda Rose, KTH School of Technology and Health

From CBF: Eva Bergsten, Catherine Trask, Marina Heiden, Jennie Jackson

EMG-based measures of patterns of work and rest - effects of data processing methodology

Bo Veiersted External link, opens in new window., National Institute of Occupational Health, Oslo
Mikael Forsman, Department of Public Health Sciences, Karolinska Institutet

Time patterns of activity and inactivity in office workers

Allan Toomingas, Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet
Leon Straker, Curtin University of Technology, Perth

Variation expressed by EVA - state-of-the-art review

Pete Johnson, Department of Environmental & Occupational Health, University of Washington, Seattle
Leon Straker, School of Physiotherapy, Curtin University of Technology, Perth

Comparison of different variables that can express (aspects of) variation through analysis of simulated exposure profiles

Pascal Madeleine, Center for Sensory-Motor Interaction, Aalborg University

Fatigue development, blood flow and EMG at different controlled time patterns of work

Richard Wells, Applied Health Sciences, University of Waterloo

The work/pause relationship in the movement pattern of fatigue development in stereotypical repetitive work

Tim Bosch, TNO, The Netherlands
Jaap van Diëen, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam

From the CBF: Eugene Lyskov, David Hallman

Quantification of motor variability in a model work; probably a simple, repetitive arm work with low biomechanical load

From CBF: Divya Srinivasan, Mats Djupsjöbacka, Dmitry Domkin

Within- and between-individual variance of different measures of motor variability in experimental and field tasks

Jonas Sandlund, External link, opens in new window. Department of Community Medicine and Rehabilitation, Umeå University

From CBF: Mats Djupsjöbacka, Divya Srinivasan

The effect on motor variability and physiological fatigue of combinations of physical and mental load in a simple manual labor task

From CBF: Divya Srinivasan, Mats Djupsjöbacka, Dmitry Domkin