Aims: Adult non-Western immigrants in Scandinavia tend to be worse off in terms of health than native-born populations, which cannot be fully ascribed to their often lower socioeconomic status (SES). This review examines if differences in health status are also present between non-Western immigrant and majority children in Denmark, Norway and Sweden, and if SES explains the differences. Methods: Following PRISMA guidelines, relevant Scandinavian peer-reviewed quantitative publications since 1990 were identified through a systematic search of PubMed, EMBASE, Scopus, Web of Science and SveMed. Of 1197 identified publications, 27 remained relevant after applying inclusion criteria: 3 Danish, 6 Norwegian and 18 Swedish studies. Results: Non-western immigrant children had overall poorer outcomes compared with ethnic majority children in Denmark, Norway and Sweden in health issues covered by the included studies: diabetes, obesity, oral and mental health, and well-being. However, in diabetes, obesity and mental health, non-Western immigrant children from certain countries and regions, and descendants of non-Western immigrants had similar/more favourable outcomes than majority children. In mental health and well-being, ethnic inequalities were strongly associated with SES, while for diabetes, obesity and oral health, differences remained significant after adjusting for SES. Conclusions:Overall poorer health outcomes in non-Western immigrant compared with majority children in Scandinavia cannot be fully explained by SES. Evidence points to additional mechanisms at individual, household, societal or policy levels, including reasons for migration, culture and societal discrimination. Finally, methodological issues may influence study outcomes, e.g. heterogeneity of populations studied and socioeconomic variables included.

Background: The family is an important setting in the promotion of child health. The parent–child relationship affects the social and health development of children, and children’s healthy behaviors are associated with positive parenting strategies. The parent–child relationship is bi-directional and the connection between parenting and child health is complex. However, few parenting interventions work with parents and children together, and more knowledge is needed on how to develop and implement interventions promoting healthy parent–child relationships. Focusing on a family cooking class program, this study addresses how community initiatives engaging parents and children together can contribute to integrating parenting support with local health promotion. Methods: Participant-driven photo-elicited interviews (nine families), focus group evaluations (nine parents/14 children) and observations during cooking classes (10 classes) were applied to analyze the tools and mechanisms that can support positive parenting. Results: The study found that visual, practical and sensory learning techniques, applied in a context-sensitive learning environment that ensured guidance, safety and a friendly social atmosphere, contributed to positive parent–child interaction and bonding. Conclusion: The cooking program facilitated parenting practices that support child involvement and autonomy. Thus, the program constituted an effective intervention to strengthen parent–child relationships and positive parenting.

Promoting healthy eating among children has high priority in Nordic countries but remains complex. With the purpose of contributing knowledge to inform efforts to promote healthy eating environments in schools, this article explores how children feel and reflect about eating at school and seeks to nuance understandings of how food and eating are situated in school life. The article draws on ethnographic studies carried out at a Danish public sports school following two classes from fifth to seventh grades (age 11–14). By adopting a practice perspective and the analytical concepts of foodscapes and emotional spaces, the article analyses how emotions (affects and feelings), discourses, materialities, and social relations within the school interact. The findings show that many students find eating at school unpleasant. Students want to eat in an un-stressful place away from the gaze of others. They want to eat in “a safe space”, which is difficult to find at school. Students’ accounts reveal how eating at school, intersected by the transitional life-phase of youth, is affected by normativity, control and (self-)discipline, which shape and constrain their eating habits. The article points to the importance of addressing the emotional dimensions of eating in efforts to promote school health.

Introduction Type 2 diabetes is an escalating public health problem closely related to socioeconomic position. There is increased risk of type 2 diabetes in disadvantaged neighbourhoods where education, occupation and income levels are low. Meanwhile, studies show positive health outcomes of participatory community interventions pointing towards the need for increased health promotion and prevention of type 2 diabetes in local communities. This study protocol describes Tingbjerg Changing Diabetes (TCD), a community-based health promotion and type 2 diabetes prevention initiative in Tingbjerg, a disadvantaged neighbourhood in Copenhagen, Denmark. Methods and analysis TCD is a long-term, complex intervention, implemented in three phases from 2014 to 2032, focusing on partnership formation (phase 1, 2014–2019), developing and implementing action for health (phase 2, 2019–2030) and diffusion of knowledge (phase 3, 2022–2032). The Supersetting principles act as guidelines for development and implementation of all intervention activities of TCD, involving several population groups in a variety of everyday life settings. The implementation of TCD draws on Community Action Research design and methodologies. TCD’s evaluation and research strategy is interdisciplinary, pragmatic and multimethod, unfolding at three levels of operation: (A) evaluating activities, (B) researching cross-cutting topics, and (C) researching methods and approaches. Ethics and dissemination TCD has been approved by the Danish Data Protection Agency. Accordingly, the initiative is carried out in adherence to rules and regulations of the Danish Data Protection Agency. As data contain no personal identifiable or sensitive data, no clearance from the Danish National Ethical Review Board can be obtained according to Danish regulations. Citizen, local agents and stakeholders are engaged in the design and execution of TCD to ensure usefulness, reflexive interpretation of data, relevance and iterative progression of interventions. Results will be published in international peer-reviewed scientific journals, presented at conferences and through public media including TCD home page, podcasts and videos.

Aims: This paper examines the importance of recruitment site in relation to the recruitment of ethnic minorities into health research. It presents a synthesis of experiences drawn from six interlinked Danish studies which applied different methods and used healthcare facilities and educational settings as sites for recruitment. Methods: Inspired by interpretive reviewing, data on recruitment methods from the different studies were synthesized with a focus on the various levels of recruitment success achieved. This involved an iterative process of comparison, analysis and discussion of experiences among the researchers involved. Results: Success in recruitment seemed to depend partly on recruitment site. Using healthcare facilities as the recruitment site and healthcare professionals as gatekeepers was less efficient than using schools and employees from educational institutions. Successful study designs also depended on the possibility of singling out specific locations with a high proportion of the relevant ethnic minority target population. Conclusions:The findings, though based on a small number of cases, indicate that health professionals and healthcare institutions, despite their interest in high-quality health research into all population groups, fail to facilitate research access to some of the most disadvantaged groups, who need to be included in order to understand the mechanisms behind health disparities. This happens despite the genuine wish of many healthcare professionals to help facilitate such research. In this way, the findings indirectly emphasize the specific challenge of accessing more vulnerable and sick groups in research studies.

This article explores how health responsibility in relation to body weight management is institutionally enacted in three welfare institutions in the interplay between traditional ‘social interventionist’ welfare and ‘non-interfering’ neoliberal ideology. The analysis asks how citizens of non-Western origin at different life stages are positioned within, and navigate, opposing ideological value systems, and adapt to, or resist, institutionally constructed ‘health subjectivities’. The cross-case analysis shows that as people grow older, the institutional requirement to adapt to neoliberal norms of individual responsibility increases, but that in all three settings health responsibility is ambiguously distributed and enacted among welfare state agencies and citizens, and that this renders children, youths and parents vulnerable in different ways. We identify how marginalised citizens are constituted by, but also resist, neoliberal health promotion policies as welfare policy moves away from universalism and towards targeting in Denmark, which appears to increase health inequalities along socio-economic and ethnic lines.