Annikki Arola, PhD, principal lecturer in occupational therapy.

Annikki Arola has a Ph.D. from the Department of Health and Rehabilitation at University of Gothenburg. Her research focuses on health and well-being in the aging population. She is particularly interested in solutions on how health in everyday life can be promoted, maintained, and supported among older persons in society. Annikki Arola has been part of multidisciplinary research centers such as Ageing and Health, AGECAP and Centre for person-centred care, GPCC, at University of Gothenburg. Additionally, she is affiliated as a post-doc alumnus to the SWEAH, the National Graduate School on Ageing and Health at Lund University.

Arola is currently involved as a postdoc researcher at Umeå University. The project is about creating an exercise program to reduce the risk of falls in the elderly. In the project, a fall-preventive motor-cognitive program is being co-created together with representatives of the target group, people living at home over the age of 65. Annikki Arola is also involved in a research project with a focus on AI-driven Nordic Health and Welfare, where the focus is on how AI-based applications can be used to motivate and promote health in everyday life among people aged 65-74. This project is linked to Arcada's Heath Tech Hub, which will serve as a learning and research environment where users, professionals, and stakeholders together test and develop health technology from a user perspective.

Annikki Arola also serves actively as a reviewer for scientific journals focusing on occupational science and occupational therapy, health promotion, ageing and rehabilitation.

Selected publications:
Goodyear, A.-C., Arola, A. and Rosendahl, S. 2023 “'I wish I had asked for support earlier' - Immigrant family caregivers' experiences of living with a person with dementia,” Scandinavian journal of caring sciences, 1–10. DOI: 10.1111/scs.13155

Arola, A. 2018. Capturing the experience of health among persons aging in a migration context: Health promotion interventions as means to enable health and occupations in daily life. (Doctoral dissertation). http://hdl.handle.net/2077/56883 External link

Arola, L A,. Barenfeld,E., Dahlin-Ivanoff, S., & Häggblom-Kronlöf, G. 2018. Distribution and evaluation of sense of coherence among older immigrants before and after a health promotion intervention – results from the RCT study promoting aging migrants’ capability. Clinical Interventions in Aging, 13, 2317-2328. https://doi.org/10.2147/CIA.S177791 External link

Arola LA., Dellenborg, L., & Häggblom-Kronlöf , G. 2018. Occupational perspective of health among persons ageing in the context of migration. Journal of Occupational Science, 25(1), 65-75. DOI: 10.1080/14427591.2017.1368411

Arola, L., Mårtensson, L., & Häggblom Kronlöf, G. 2017. Viewing oneself as a capable person – Experiences of professionals working with older Finnish immigrants. Scandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences, 31(4), 759-767.