Publications
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Vigsnes, Kristine Løkås; Kiland, Charlotte; Rutter, Harry & Abildsnes, Eirik
(2025).
Raising complex public health challenges on local government agendas: a Norwegian case study.
Health Research Policy and Systems.
23(1).
doi:
10.1186/s12961-025-01347-3.
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Background
Public health challenges, ranging from noncommunicable disease prevention to pandemic preparedness, involve both policymaking and the handling of complexity at local, national or global level. The complexity of public health challenges arises from uncertain knowledge, hidden mechanisms, differing conceptual models and multiple stakeholders, making it difficult to identify and agree on problem definitions and potential solutions. This case study aims to provide insights into how complex public health challenges are addressed within local government agendas. We use theories of policy entrepreneurs and agenda setting to explore the processes behind the agenda setting of a public health programme for work inclusion.
Methods
We conducted an in-depth case study in a local government context. Data from interviews with key informants and political documents were triangulated and analysed using deductive thematic content analysis, framed within Kingdon’s agenda-setting theory and theories of policy entrepreneurs.
Results
We identified problem framing, the involvement of multiple actors, and turbulent surroundings as influential factors for agenda setting of complex public health challenges in local government. We further identified the significance of the level of influence of policy entrepreneurs’ positions, their coalitions and maintaining agenda control as core mechanisms for enabling agenda setting. We found that strategic manoeuvres of policy entrepreneurs were crucial to handle and manoeuvre complexity within the multiple streams described by Kingdon.
Conclusions
This article contributes knowledge of how complex public health problems receive attention and how these issues are shaped and defined, placed on governmental agendas, and paired with solutions. The article contributes important insights for understanding policy responses to complex public health problems and how policy entrepreneurs strategically manoeuvre within the streams of policy development to create windows of opportunity and maintain agenda control. This is important knowledge to support agenda setting for public health challenges and to realize policies to improve public health.
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Vigsnes, Kristine Løkås; Abildsnes, Eirik; Wilson, Philip & Mølland, Eirin
(2024).
Activities, prerequisites, and outcomes of service coordination: A logic model for the ‘New Patterns’ intervention.
Nordisk tidsskrift for livskvalitet og bærekraftig velferdsutvikling.
3(2),
p. 72–84.
doi:
10.18261/njwel.3.2.2.
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In Norway, more than one in ten children grow up in low-income families. Persistent low income and its consequences are often transferred across generations, and coordinated cross-sectoral services are potentially part of a solution. In this study, we present a logic model for the ‘New patterns’ intervention. This new service, which aims to prevent the transfer of poverty and accompanying social, financial and health-related consequences across generations, was designed to integrate health and social care for low-income families. The logic model facilitates robust evaluation of the intervention’s effectiveness. New Patterns is an intervention promoting comprehensive and coordinated efforts for families with children who struggle with persistent low income and experience complex challenges. In this intervention, a family coordinator is responsible for conducting close follow-ups with children and adults in ten families over a period of five years. We identified ten activities in the family coordinator’s follow-up of the participating families. These elements are presented in a logic model, which illustrates the potential mechanisms linking activities, prerequisites and short and long-term outcomes. Detailed descriptions of a logic model are useful for its implementation and model fidelity. Thus far, only a few studies have described the constituent activities of coordinating functions. Therefore, this article contributes knowledge on how coordination activities may unfold, and how these activities are interconnected with prerequisites and outcomes. We argue for a more detailed and holistic approach to service coordination and functions that address complex challenges, such as poverty and social inequality.
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Haraldstad, Kristin; Abildsnes, Eirik; Bøe, Tormod; Vigsnes, Kristine Løkås; Wilson, Philip & Mølland, Eirin
(2023).
Health-related quality of life of children from low-income families: the new patterns study.
BMC Public Health.
23(1).
doi:
10.1186/s12889-023-17335-7.
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Background Child poverty has been gradually rising, and about 12% of all Norwegian children are living in a state of relative poverty. This study was part of the New Patterns project, which recruits low-income families requiring long-term welfare services. Included families receive integrated welfare services, with the help of a family coordinator. The current study objectives were to explore the associations between HRQoL, demographic variables (age, gender, immigration status) and leisure activities in children and adolescents in low-income families. Methods A cross-sectional survey was conducted among low-income families. Participating families had children (N = 214) aged 8–18 years.The family had a household income below 60% of the equivalized median population income for three consecutive years and needed long-term welfare services. HRQoL was measured using the KIDSCREEN-27 self-report instrument. Descriptive statistics, including means, standard deviations, and proportions, were calculated, and ordinary least squares regressions were performed, clustering standard errors at the family level. Results Compared with boys, girls reported lower HRQoL on only one out of five dimensions, physical wellbeing. In the regression analysis we found statistically significant positive associations between migrant status and HRQoL on all five dimensions: physical wellbeing, psychological wellbeing, parents and autonomy, peers and social support, and school environment. In addition, age was associated with school environment, and age, gender and participation in leisure activities was associated with better physical wellbeing. Conclusions Baseline results regarding HRQoL among children and adolescents in low-income families indicate that they have overall good HRQoL, though some participants had low HRQoL scores, especially on the physical and social support dimensions. Children with an immigrant background report higher HRQoL than do children without an immigrant background.
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Bøe, Tormod; Ostojic, Helene Angelica; Haraldstad, Kristin; Abildsnes, Eirik; Wilson, Philip & Vigsnes, Kristine Løkås
[Show all 7 contributors for this article]
(2023).
Self-reported and parent-reported mental health in children from low-income families in Agder, Norway: results from baseline measurements of New Patterns project participants.
BMJ Open.
13(11).
doi:
10.1136/bmjopen-2023-076400.
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Background Poverty may pose risks to child and adolescent mental health, but few studies have reported on this association among children and adolescents in low-income families in Norway.
Methods Based on a sample participating in an intervention for low-income families in Norway, we report data from the survey administered at the start of the intervention. Mental health problems were measured using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ; self-report (SR) n = 148; parent/proxy-report (PR) n = 153, mean age = 10.8). Demographic and family characteristics were obtained from parent reported data. Results are presented by gender and migration background. Regression analysis was used to investigate the relative contribution of background factors to mental health symptoms. The distribution of scores is compared to UK norms.
Results Participants reported relatively high scores on the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) Total Difficulties Scale (parent/proxy-report, PR mean=10.7; self-report, SR mean=10.1). Participants with non-immigrant backgrounds scored considerably higher on the Total Difficulties Scale (PR mean difference=2.9; SR 5.3) and on most other domains measured with the SDQ compared with their peers with immigration backgrounds. Participants generally scored higher than or equal to UK norms.
Conclusion Participants in the current study had many symptoms of mental health problems, with large differences between those with and without a migrant background. Interventions for low-income families should be based on detailed knowledge about differences in family risks, resources and needs.
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Mølland, Eirin; Lundberg, Kjetil; Haraldstad, Kristin; Vigsnes, Kristine Løkås; Bøe, Tormod & Danielsen, Hilde
[Show all 9 contributors for this article]
(2023).
Economic composition and income volatility of Norwegian low-income families – a mixed method study of its implications.
Nordic Journal of Social Research.
14(1),
p. 1–22.
doi:
10.18261/njsr.14.1.2.
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Background: There is a growing amount of research literature documenting increasing social inequality and an increase in the number of children growing up in families with persistently low income in all Scandinavian countries. However, there is a research gap on the issue of income composition; what the main income sources of low-income families are in relation to the families’ position to the labour market and to the welfare state, and possible implications of this to the families’ potential to escape poverty. The aim of this study was to describe the complexity in income sources experienced by low-income families with and without immigrant backgrounds in Norway. Method: Families with children aged 0–17 years (N = 168 families) with low income and in need of long-standing welfare services participated in the New Patterns project. We used a parallel mixed-methods design with quantitative and qualitative research methods, using questionnaires, register data, individual and focus group interviews, workshops with family coordinators and ethnographic fieldwork. Results: Most parents included in the study had low education (51%) and a low proportion participated in the labour market (21%). Twenty different income sources or benefits that the families received were identified and no clear pattern of type of income sources that families received emerged. Families with immigrant background were more likely to receive basic subsistence benefits than non-immigrant background families, and there were corresponding small differences in employment status upon entering the New Patterns project. Several benefits are reduced if families receive other types of income and the interdependence between the various revenue sources increases the unpredictability of total family income. The families have varying degrees of economic literacy, practical finance skills and competence in managing bureaucracy. Conclusion: Income volatility and mechanisms in the Norwegian welfare system contribute to a poverty trap for low-income families who depend on benefits that are not work-related.
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Mølland, Eirin; Vigsnes, Kristine L.; Bøe, Tormod; Danielsen, Hilde; Lundberg, Kjetil & Haraldstad, Kristin
[Show all 9 contributors for this article]
(2020).
The New Patterns study: coordinated measures to combat child poverty.
Scandinavian Journal of Public Health.
ISSN 1403-4948.
49(5),
p. 1–9.
doi:
10.1177/1403494820956452.
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Background: Child poverty rates are rising in Norway with potential negative consequences for children. Services for families with low income are often fragmented and poorly integrated, and few coordinated initiatives have been implemented and evaluated in Norway.
Aims: The aim of the current study is to evaluate how integrated and coordinated services provided over a prolonged period by a family coordinator are related to changes across a wide range of health, wellbeing and home environment indicators for the participants.
Methods: The study uses a mixed methods approach utilising survey and register data, as well as information from interviews and shadowing, to document and evaluate outcomes associated with the intervention and the process of implementation. Data are gathered at baseline and annually throughout the duration of the study. Participants are identified to facilitate longer-term follow-up using register data.
Conclusions: This project will develop important knowledge about the implementation of coordinated services to families with a low income, and how this way of organizing services influences important outcomes for the family members in the short and long term.
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Vigsnes, Kristine Løkås; Kiland, Charlotte & Abildsnes, Eirik
(2023).
Co-creation in Public Health Policy: Dealing with complexity.
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Vigsnes, Kristine Løkås; Abildsnes, Eirik & Kiland, Charlotte
(2023).
Policy Development and Implementation in Public Health – Dealing with Complexity.
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Vigsnes, Kristine Løkås; Mølland, Eirin & Abildsnes, Eirik
(2023).
Nye mønstre - Hvordan organisere tjenester til familier med komplekse behov?
Forebygging.no.
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Vigsnes, Kristine Løkås
(2023).
Fattigdom.
[Radio].
NRK Sørlnadssendinga.
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Intervju om fattigdom, resultater og erfaringer fra Nye mønstre-prosjektet, Levekårskonferansen.
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Vigsnes, Kristine Løkås & Mølland, Eirin
(2023).
Podcast:#05 Om barnefattigdom og nye mønstre.
[Internet].
Fremtidens kommuner Podcast.
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Mølland, Eirin; Abildsnes, Eirik & Vigsnes, Kristine Løkås
(2023).
New Patterns for Low-income Families - A model for comprehensive and coordinated efforts.
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Vigsnes, Kristine Løkås & Abildsnes, Eirik
(2023).
Presentasjon av Nye mønstre på rapportlansering: "Rapid review of inequalities in health and wellbeing in Norway since 2014".
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Vigsnes, Kristine Løkås; Sannes, Inger Lise & Lindtveit, Maria Cecilie
(2022).
Nye mønstre: Sosialt arbeid fungerer!
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Vigsnes, Kristine Løkås; Bersvendsen, Tore; Mølland, Eirin & Abildsnes, Eirik
(2022).
Nye mønstre - trygg oppvekst. Koordinert, tverrfaglig innsats til barnefamilier med lavinntekt.
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Lundberg, Kjetil; Danielsen, Hilde & Vigsnes, Kristine Løkås
(2020).
Sosialfaglig arbeid i et nedstengt Norge – erfaringer fra et tiltak for lavinntektsfamilier.
Fontene.
ISSN 0805-5432.
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Published
Apr. 16, 2024 11:17 AM
