Bo Malmberg
Professor in Gerontology

Since receiving a doctorate in Education at Linköping University in 1990, Bo Malmberg has focused his research on older persons’ situation from a social-psychological point of view. Many older persons are confronted with reduced strength and withering social networks.

In several studies he has followed very old persons. Doing this longitudinally provides a better understanding of the ageing process than does comparing older and younger persons on one single occasion. In recent years he has, together with colleagues at the Institute of Gerontology, the Karolinska Institute and Pennsylvania State University, USA, been a principal investigator in a study of gender differences in health in older years. The main idea has been to isolate such differences. By studying brothers and sisters in unlike sexed twin-pairs, it is possible to make comparisons between men and women which in many respects are as well matched as possible.

Bo Malmberg has also together with colleagues, mainly at the Institute of Gerontology, made a number of scientific investigations primarily for the National Board of Health and Welfare and the Jönköping County Council. These have touched upon many aspects of care for older persons, from organisational questions to the interplay between informal (relatives) and formal carers and different kinds of support for informal carers.