June 8, 2023

NEAR expands with two databases

NEAR is expanding with two databases, the Swedish national inventory of health and care (SWENIS) and Sheltered Housing (TRYBO). The two databases are part of the U-age program, initiated by David Edvardsson at Umeå University.

SWENIS collects nationally representative data on residents’ health and quality of life. It also collects data on care provision characteristics and organization in Swedish residential aged-care facilities. TRYBO is studying sheltered housing* with a focus on health and how residents rate their quality of life.

“The SWENIS study addresses the fact that Sweden has no nationally representative and valid standardized measures of models of care and person-centeredness. Also, sheltered housing is a relatively new form of accommodation in Sweden. Therefore, knowledge of individuals’ experience of such a living form is lacking”, says the principal investigator (PI) of SVENIS and TRYBO, Anders Sköldunger.

Anders Sköldunger. Photo: Private

Debora Rizzuto is the NEAR Scientific Coordinator and has been involved in the inclusion of SWENIS and TRYBO in NEAR.

“We are very happy to welcome SWENIS and TRYBO. We believe that the expansion of NEAR with two databases focused on residential care facilities and sheltered housing increases the range and adds valuable perspectives to our NEAR data. Moreover, we are happy to increase our collaboration with Anders Sköldunger, with whom we have successfully collaborated for over 20 years”, says Debora Rizzuto.

Debora Rizzuto. Photo: Stefan Zimmerman

Anders Sköldunger is also the PI of the Swedish National study on Aging and Care – Nordanstig (SNAC-N), which has been included in NEAR since the start.

“I’m happy that SWENIS and TRYBO have become part of NEAR as well. I think it can serve as an excellent platform to make our data more available to researchers interested in examining these critical questions”, says Anders Sköldunger.

*Sheltered Housing:

• A relatively recent form of accommodation in Sweden where at least one of the movers should be at least 70 years old
• There must be common areas for socializing and a host at certain times of the day
  

Read more about U-Age, the research program that includes SWENIS and TRYBO.