Two new dissertations

During the past year, another two doctoral students within the SIA project have finished their theses.

Else Foverskov successfully defended her doctoral thesis “Social Inequality in Cognitive Ageing” supervised by Rikke Lund. Her thesis focused on how socioeconomic conditions are associated with later life level and change in cognitive ability through a life course perspective, primarily examining the role of early life cognitive ability.

Harpa Sif Eyjólfsdóttir also successfully defended her doctoral thesis “Unequal tracks? Studies on work, retirement and health” supervised by Carin Lennartsson. Harpa investigated how health and socioeconomic status influence age of retirement, and in turn, if and how prolonged working life can affect health in later life for different socioeconomic groups. Link to interview with Harpa.

Else’s and Harpa’s studies contribute to the SIA project’s aim of elucidating how social inequalities in important life course processes and transitions influence health and functioning at late midlife and in older ages.

“The fact that the SIA programme has made these two eminent theses possible, as well as quite many earlier, is in my mind the main achievement of the programme and a key aspect for capacity building within social ageing research”, says PI Johan Fritzell.