75 years of public health – from tuberculosis to self-optimising health trends

75 years is nothing these days. Nevertheless, it’s remarkable how much has happened to the health of the Danish population in the 75 years that the National Institute of Public Health has existed.

The Institute was founded in 1950 under the name of the Danish Tuberculosis Index.

Back then, the task was to monitor the development of tuberculosis in Denmark and gather knowledge to combat the contagious lung disease that was spreading in dense urban housing and was one of society’s greatest health challenges.

Keeping an eye on the health of the Danish population

Ever since then, the National Institute of Public Health has evolved in line with the development of society, and as part of that process it became part of the University of Southern Denmark in 2007. Always with a focus on keeping an eye on the health of the Danish population and how it can be improved.

- The Institute has kept up with society in a dynamic way. We respond to the health challenges that command political attention, and we also point out some of the new challenges that are emerging. For example, at the moment we are focusing on the health challenges that climate change will create, explains Director Morten Hulvej Rod regarding the Institute’s development through time.

He also emphasises that the merger with the University of Southern Denmark has been an important milestone in the Institute’s development.

- The Institute’s becoming part of SDU was really important because we became part of a university with five strong faculties, which gives us great opportunities to conduct the interdisciplinary research that today’s public health challenges call for. At the same time, we are educating the researchers and practitioners of the future in the field of public health, and we are contributing to the cycle of knowledge that society needs in our field.  

Improved public health

When it comes to public health today, issues such as health inequality, mental distress, chronic diseases, nicotine products, alcohol, screens and sleep occupy the Institute, which is located in Studiestræde in Copenhagen.

In this way, the history of the Institute is also a story about the development of public health in Denmark.

- Over the years, as I’m sure you know, public health has continually improved. But even though we are living longer and longer, health inequality is not decreasing over time. On the contrary, in recent years we are seeing a trend towards polarisation: some population groups are intensely concerned with promoting their health as a form of self-optimisation and follow the commercial health trends of the day. This is not necessarily very healthy – from a public health perspective, explains Morten Hulvej Rod and elaborates:

- The self-optimising health trends of exercise, supplements, ice baths etc. increase health inequality because health is turned into something hugely demanding that is only available for certain social groups. At the same time, the many health trends may have a negative impact on our relationship with food and our bodies. Paradoxically, we are currently seeing a large increase in the number of both people with overweight and people with eating disorders.

From Thule reports to community healthcare

Over the years, the tasks at the National Institute of Public Health have shifted from a single clinical focus to a much more multifaceted focus on public health.

Susanne Brenaa Reimann has felt this clearly throughout her working life at the Institute.

She started as an office trainee in 1985 at the then Danish Institute of Clinical Epidemiology (DICE). Back then, the Institute consisted of around 20 employees based in a patrician villa on Svanemøllevej in Copenhagen.

- We were like a big family when I started at the Institute and the tasks were completely different. In the beginning, I typed up several reports on a typewriter. Later on, we had a shared computer room that you could book for one hour at a time, recalls Susanne Brenaa Reimann, who is now part of the Secretariat, and continues:

- A lot has changed since then and I’ve kept up. I’ve been lucky enough to be in Greenland twice to help conduct population surveys in Aasiaat and Nuuk, which was amazing. Today, I perform many different types of tasks in a day, such as helping to conduct the Institute’s Mental Development and Function courses for community health nurses, and I know the Institute so well that I can help with most things.

Genuinely interdisciplinary

Throughout Susanne Brenaa Reimann’s working life, the Institute has expanded into more and more areas – and it has changed its name.

Today, there are 165 employees at the National Institute of Public Health, including around 145 researchers, and the register research and epidemiology that started it all is complemented by strong expertise in humanities, social science and intervention research.

And from Director Morten Hulvej Rod’s perspective, the breadth of the Institute has created an interdisciplinary environment that can make a real difference.

- It’s a great joy and benefit that the Institute is genuinely interdisciplinary and that the disciplines really work together and need each other, because it’s through interdisciplinarity that we can achieve even better results in the field of public health. For this reason, interdisciplinarity may also have been a matter of necessity. Public health issues such as the consumption of alcohol and nicotine cannot be dealt with very well without interdisciplinary work.

Impact on society

The Danish Institute of Public Health wants to make a real difference for the health of the Danish population both now and in the future, emphasises Morten Hulvej Rod:

- At a time when a multitude of voices and commercial forces want to shape our health, it’s even more important that we bring our knowledge into play and give credible and clear explanations with regard to matters of public health. We are good at leaving our mark on society and we will continue to do so, because there are important issues to solve – for example, health inequality.