Holistic view of population health and development
What motivates people to protect or improve their health? The Population Research Center takes an interdisciplinary approach to such questions and investigates how individual characteristics and behaviors affect the health of society.
The coronavirus pandemic has shown us that the health of individuals often depends on the behavior of the whole population. The new Population Research Center (PRC) at the University of Zurich investigates questions of health and development that affect the whole population. At the UZH PRC, researchers from the fields of public health, epidemiology, pediatrics, neurology, psychology, political science as well as communication and media studies work together. Population research deals with people and their characteristics and behaviors. Data are collected through surveys, interviews or observations and statistically analyzed. Findings from population research can help to improve people’s health.
Explore diverse population research projects: motor skill development, prevention of HIV and sexually transmitted diseases, the Ciao Corona study and the PRC bus.
Health and development from birth to old age
The Zurich Longitudinal Studies have been following almost 1,000 people since 1954: since birth, the study participants have been assessed at regular intervals. As part of the assessments, they solve motor and cognitive tasks and answer questions about their health and life circumstances. These studies help to understand whether we all share a typical developmental course or whether we are all so different that no clear patterns can be identified. From this, normal values and curves can be derived for various developmental areas, for example growth, sleep or motor skills. This helps to identify abnormal behavior and disorders.
SwissPrEPared – a national HIV prevention program
Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is a medication that protects against HIV infection. Taken correctly, it reduces the risk of HIV infection by 99%. This has been scientifically proven. The SwissPrEPared program aims to improve the medical care of people taking PrEP and thus contribute to the elimination of HIV in Switzerland by 2030. More than 7,000 people in Switzerland are already participating in SwissPrEPared.
Free HIV and STI testing for city residents
Encouraging people at risk for HIV and sexually transmitted infections (STI) to get tested is an important part of recent prevention efforts. However, testing without symptoms is not covered by basic health insurance in Switzerland. The city of Zurich is therefore offering free HIV and STI testing to its young people and other low-income people living in the city as part of a pilot project. An accompanying study will examine the effectiveness of this program.
Population Research Center (PRC)-Bus
During the Corona pandemic, the PRC bus was on the road visiting school children for the Ciao Corona study in schools and adult study participants at home. In the future, the bus will continue to travel to reach the public directly for research. At Scientifica, you will be able to visit the bus. Children can become population researchers themselves and inoculate a large teddy bear on the couch. There will be ampoules (with colored water) and real syringes (without needles) and plasters. The video on the screen next to the bus shows a video from the Corona era where the bus went to schools and children participated in the Ciao Corona study.
