Kristofer Årestedt
Professor of health sciences
Kristofer Årestedt is originally a nurse with specialised training in intensive care nursing. His research focuses on care for cardiovascular diseases, end-of-life care, and method development.
Funds awarded since 2014
SEK 1.8 million; funders: the Swedish Cancer Society, the Research Council in South-East Sweden, the Swedish Heart and Lung Association
Every year, around 10 000 people in Sweden suffer a cardiac arrest, and thousands die. Experiencing a sudden cardiac arrest is a traumatic event, and the aftermath can be difficult, both for the survivor and for their loved ones, but few are offered support from the health services.
“If a loved one has died from cardiac arrest, you'll need to grieve, and if the person survives but perhaps suffers from aftereffects such as concentration difficulties or mood swings, you’ll need to handle that. For both patients and their loved ones, it’s also a matter of processing a trauma, and many live with a fear that it will happen again”, says Kristofer Årestedt.
The perspective of loved ones is important to us. In the health services, we see that there’s a lack of organised support for loved ones, despite the significant impact on them.
He is originally a nurse and has a doctorate in health sciences, with a thesis on the quality of life in elderly people with heart failure. Since completing his doctorate, he has continued to delve further into the field of heart disease, always with a focus on people’s quality of life, life situations, and well-being. In 2016, he became a professor of health sciences at Linnaeus University and subsequently the research director for iCARE, The Innovative Cardiac Arrest Research Group. iCARE investigates how the health services can improve their support for those who suffer from cardiac arrest, their loved ones, and those that are bereaved.
“When we put together the group, we agreed that we wanted relevant, hands-on clinical research of high quality, and that we’d like it to be innovative. The perspective of loved ones is important to us. In the health services, we see that there’s a lack of organised support for loved ones, despite the significant impact on them”, says Kristofer.
Focusing on the quality of life for survivors
The research group is interdisciplinary and covers the entire chain of survival, from preventive actions and early recognition to follow-up and rehabilitation.
“We also collaborate closely with various clinics and regions, and we have a comprehensive national network and a strong connection to the Swedish Resuscitation Council. This also means that our research contributes to local and national guidelines for the follow-up care of cardiac arrest patients.”
Kristofer says that there are many successful research groups studying cardiac arrest with a focus on survival, in, for example, Lund, Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Uppsala.
“What distinguishes us is a strong focus on follow-up care, the quality of life for those bereaved, and ethical issues, such as whether it’s always right to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation”, he says, and continues:
“When we save a life, it’s important to know what kind of life this’ll lead to. That’s why we want to be able to measure quality of life and well-being. Research on cardiac arrest has naturally been very focused on survival, but there’s not much known about what happens afterwards.”
Measuring the patient’s own experience
To fully understand how someone is doing and meet their needs, we need to know how the individual perceives the situation themselves. Kristofer and his fellow researchers use various types of assessment scales to capture people’s experiences and perceptions.
“In the health sciences, we use methods to investigate the more subjective experience. For example, we collect data through surveys and in-depth interviews. My area of expertise is psychometrics, which involves developing, translating, and evaluating these types of instruments for patient-reported measures and see how they can be made as reliable as possible”, he says.
Kristofer draws a strong parallel between nursing and health sciences, stating that the core of both fields is precisely people’s subjective perception of their situation.
“In this way, the health sciences complement the medical perspective very well”, he says.
iCARE
The research group consists of a total of 24 researchers from Linköping University, Region Kalmar County, Region Östergötland, and Linnaeus University.
The research is interdisciplinary and centres on the needs of cardiac arrest survivors, their loved ones, those bereaved, and healthcare providers. It covers the entire chain of survival (preventive measures and early recognition, early CPR, early defibrillation, and post-resuscitation care) and has influenced both local and national guidelines and care programmes. The research is conducted in close collaboration with the Swedish Cardiac Arrest Register, the Swedish Resuscitation Council, and the The Swedish Heart and Lung Association.