Jhon Álvarez Ahlgren

About me

I am a PhD student at the Department of Global Public Health, within the Community Nutrition and Physical Activity research group.

I work part-time as Grants Manager for EU-funded research projects at the Grants Management Office and I coordinate the research network KI Lifestyle4Health.

Previous experience:

I have a background in Dentistry and I hold a Master Degree in Public Health in Disasters and low-resource settings. I worked in clinical dentistry for more than 3 years in the public sector and participated in a number of health outreaches to isolated and indigenous communities with limited access to healthcare. I have worked with rural communities in the Andes mountains, the Amazon and other low-resource settings in Venezuela.

I worked for 3 years in a research implementation project on non-communicable disease prevention funded by the European Commission - SMART2D.

In 2020 I served as a Research Consultant with the Ignorance Hunting Team at Gapminder Foundation. Gapminder was started by the late Professor Hans Rosling, his son Ola Rosling and daughter in law Anna Rönnlund Rosling to "Fight devastating ignorance with a fact-based worldview that everyone can understand"

 

Research description

My research focuses on the scalability, social health-determinants, cost effectiveness and evaluation of implementations strategies of a school-based intervention for obesity prevention in children through parental support. My PhD project is nested in the project IMPROVE.

I am interested in non-communicable diseases , child and adolescent health and health equity. 

Publications

Application of the Theoretical Framework of Acceptability to assess a telephone-facilitated health coaching intervention for the prevention and management of type 2 diabetes.
Timm L, Annerstedt KS, Álvarez Ahlgren J, Absetz P, Alvesson HM, Forsberg BC, Daivadanam M
PLoS One 2022 ;17(10):e0275576

Quality of stroke guidelines in low- and middle-income countries: a systematic review.
Yaria J, Gil A, Makanjuola A, Oguntoye R, Miranda JJ, Lazo-Porras M, Zhang P, Tao X, Álvarez Ahlgren J, Bernabe-Ortiz A, Moscoso-Porras M, Malaga G, Svyato I, Osundina M, Gianella C, Bello O, Lawal A, Temitope A, Adebayo O, Lakkhanaloet M, Brainin M, Johnson W, Thrift AG, Phromjai J, Mueller-Stierlin AS, Perone SA, Varghese C, Feigin V, Owolabi MO,
Bull World Health Organ 2021 Sep;99(9):640-652E

SMART2D-development and contextualization of community strategies to support self-management in prevention and control of type 2 diabetes in Uganda, South Africa, and Sweden.
Absetz P, Van Olmen J, Guwatudde D, Puoane T, Alvesson HM, Delobelle P, Mayega R, Kasujja F, Naggayi G, Timm L, Hassen M, Aweko J, De Man J, Álvarez Ahlgren J, Annerstedt KS, Daivadanam M
Transl Behav Med 2020 02;10(1):25-34

Teaching portfolio

I am passionate about teaching and sharing knowledge. During my Master studies I was deeply inspired by outstanding teachers in global health, such as Professor Hans Rosling. I strive to transmit knowledge in an easy and understandable way for all possible audiences.

I teach on the following topics:

• Basic concepts in Global Health: determinants, disease burden and data tools.
• Scalability of public health interventions.
• Oral health - Global challenges and the Sustainable Development Goals.

Previous teaching experience

• Guest lecturer in the Master's program in Global Health at Uppsala University 2020-22.
• Guest lecturer in the Master's program in Global Health at Karolinska Institutet 2019-.
• Guest lecturer in the elective cross-program course in Global Health at Karolinska Institutet 2017-
• Guest lecturer in the elective course in Global Health for dentistry students at Karolinska Institutet 2021-
• Guest lecturer in the Master Program in Public Health in disasters and low-resource settings at Oviedo university, Spain 2017-2018

Guest lecturer and panelist in the 2020 course At war with the virus: Coping with COVID-19. An online multidisciplinary global health summer course organized jointly by the School of Health Sciences at Central Michigan University and  Indiana University Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health, Department of Global Health in the USA. I contributed to this session by describing the unfolding of the COVID-19 pandemic in Venezuela, the health system response put in place and by sharing my insights about the challenges and lessons learned during the beginning of the outbreak from a public and global health perspective.

Education

• Degree in Dental Sciences
• Master degree in Public Health in Disasters and low-resource settings

 

 

Academic honours, awards and prizes

Erasmus Mundus Scholarship Award for the Master Program in Public Health in Disasters