Research Unit of Population Health
Director Professor Juha Auvinen
Vice director University researcher Virpi Harila
PopH in a nutshell
One of the five research units at the Faculty of Medicine
Established in 2022
Teaching in 14 disciplines for medical and dentistry students
Approx 110 staff members
The Research unit of Population Health aims at research excellence in the fields of life-course epidemiology, systems epidemiology, psychiatric epidemiology, occupational health, health activity, public health, environmental health as well as oral health and clinical practices.
Lifelong health is the cross cutting theme of our research. We view human health from the perspective of different disciplines from individual to global scale - from oral health to general practice and public health to environmental and planetary health. One important aspect is the use of high technology in maintaining and promoting oral health. Our multidisciplinary research groups host researchers with different backgrounds and expertise, from clinical researchers to gene researchers, health scientists to geographers, biologists and anthropologists.
The researchers are supported by international and national funding including Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe projects (LongITools, TRIGGER, InChildHealth, STAGE), the Academy of Finland (SCHOOLWELL, ClimBreath), Biocenter Oulu and several foundations.
You can find more information about the research groups and the projects from the links below.
Research groups
Life-course Epidemiology
The Life-course epidemiology group is inclusive, multicultural, multidisciplinary and international and researches the origins and life-course trajectories of cardio-metabolic diseases and chronic multi-morbidities.
CERH
Center for Environmental and Respiratory Health Research (CERH) is a multidisciplinary group, it's strategy is related to research, education and outreach activities related to global environmental health effects. Responsible of teaching public health.
Longitudinal outcomes in psychoses, and beneficial and harmful effects of antipsychotics in psychoses and off-label use
During years 2018-2023 our group will explore the effectiveness and adverse effects of antipsychotics in psychoses and in off-label use
Physical activity and health across the lifespan
The research group is multidisciplinary gathering together several research disciplines (sports sciences, public health, health sciences, pedagogics, psychology, medical technology, information studies and cultural anthropology).
Psychiatric Epidemiology - Northern Finland Birth Cohort studies 1966 and 1986
The research group investigates different topics relating to psychiatric epidemiology.
Working life network/working life groups
Working life network is active in two lines of research: employment-related epidemiology and new understandings on occupational health.
Oral and craniofacial development research group
A major focus on studies is on NFBC-studies on tooth eruption, facial pain, lip morphology and aesthetics, occlusion and facial soft tissue characteristics.
Periodontal diseases and systemic health
We focus on the two-way relationship between periodontal and general health.
Systems epidemiology
The Systems Epidemiology laboratory at the Research Unit of Population Health is an internally and internationally actively collaborating group of around a dozen scientists in various career stages.
Oral health
The Oral Health Research Groups within the Research Unit of Population Health investigate a wide range of oral health questions utilizing extensive datasets.
Current research projects
InChildHealth - Identifying determinants for indoor air quality and their health impact in environments for children: measures to improve indoor air quality and reduce disease burdens
SchoolWell - Future School of Comprehensive Well-Being
SoluTions foR mItiGatinG climate-induced hEalth tReaths (TRIGGER)
Dynamic longitudinal exposome trajectories in cardiovascular and metabolic non-communicable diseases (LongITools)
Sustainability Transformations doctoral education pilot (SusTra)
Saami Climate Council secretariat
ORAL AI - Application of machine learning for risk assessment and diagnosis of dental diseases
Body weight trajectories; molecular entropy and aging with multi-morbidities; life-course models and pathways (OATS)
STAGE - Stay Healthy Through Ageing
Obesity: Biological, socioCultural, and environmental risk Trajectories (OBCT)
Digital Support Solutions for oral health care (DSS-oral)
ClimBReath - Interdependence between climate change, biodiversity and respiratory health from pregnancy to adulthood
ICREH - Impact of climate change on respiratory health over four decades
Research Unit of Population Health is responsible of education for general medicine, geriatrics, occupational health, dentistry and public health. Our international research unit trains young researchers at different career stages in the master's and doctoral phase and in the post-doctoral phase. Many of our researchers teach epidemiology, molecular epidemiology and biomedical data science in the Epidemiology and Biomedical Data Science (EBDS) Master's Programme. Our unit is active in developing and implementing evidence-based practices, which also includes performing administrative tasks in the healthcare sector and developing specialist medical training at both local and national level. As an example, we implement two-year General Medicine GP training, which is in-depth training in the core competence areas of general medicine, in cooperation with the Unit of General Medicine at the Wellbeing Services County of North Ostrobothnia. Our unit bears the main responsibility for basic dental education and special education and basic medical education regarding multi-morbidity, multi-problems, functional capacity and health services.
Our disciplines are:
- General practice
- Geriatrics
- Occupational health
- Public health
- Physical activity
- Orthodontics
- Periodontology and Gerodontology
- Cariology, Endodontology and Pediatric Dentistry
- Oral- and Maxillofacial surgery
- Oral radiology
- Dental public health
- Oral medicine and Oral pathology
- Prosthodontics and Stomatognathic physiology
More information about teaching / studies
PhD defences 2025
Decoding health and disease blog
Contact information
Research Unit of Population Health (PopH)
Mailing address: Research Unit of Population Health (PopH), P.O. Box 5000, FI-90014 University of Oulu, Finland
Visiting address: Research Unit of Population Health (PopH), Faculty of Medicine, Kontinkangas Campus, Aapistie 5 B / Aapistie 3 (Oral health), Oulu, Finland.
Staff email addresses: firstname.lastname (a) oulu.fi
The Research Unit of Population Health hosts the editorial office archives of the Arctic Medical Research (1972-1996), International Journal of Circumpolar Health (1997-2011), and Circumpolar Health Supplements (2007-2010). For article requests, please contact cerh(a)oulu.fi.