Stina Rutberg

About me

Associate Professor in Physiotherapy

INTRODUCING MYSELF

I am a doctor of philosophy and a Associate Professor in Physiotherapy and work as a teacher and researcher at Luleå University of Technology. I teach at the physiotherapy program at basic and advanced level. I am also director of postgraduate education at the Department of Health, Education and Technology and is a member of the department's management team.

RESEARCH

I did my doctorate in physical therapy in 2013 with the thesis "Striving for control and Acceptance to feel well - experiences of living with migraine and attending physical therapy". My research today is mainly about promoting children's and young people's health and physical activity, and there I am now primarily working on a project to increase children's active school transport (www.ltu.se/aktivaskoltransporter). I have also participated in research regarding the development of rehabilitation in elderly care and the use of user-friendly ICT in municipal rehabilitation.

The project Aktiva skoltransporter started in 2016 and has so far attracted more than 30 million in external funding. The project uses empowerment and gamification to promote sustainability and motivation for increased physical activity and, by extension, also influence health and learning. In addition to the health effects, the project also has effects on traffic safety around the schools and reduced emissions from cars. For such young children, it is the parents who decide whether the children can walk and cycle to school, and therefore we have put a lot of focus on parents' attitudes towards active school transport.

The pilot project has resulted in a large number of scientific articles as well as great media attention.

The main results are:

• Students get ready for school (arrive on time and have increased ability to concentrate)
• Gamification increases the motivation of students
• Integrated learning through assignments on the way to school provides the opportunity for "real-life" learning
• Parents' attitudes and the prevailing norms in society are important for the future development of the number of children who use active transport.
• For the children, community is important to increase motivation for active transport
• Parents' worries can be reduced by the children's enthusiasm and showing the parents that they can handle the active journey.

Tv 4 Winter cycling

SVT Winter cycling no problem despite cold External link.

Pokemon Go study External link.

Research into user-friendly ICT in municipal rehabilitation

My research also includes user friendly information and communication technology (ICT) in elderly care and we use participatory research methods to collect data. We have an ongoing project including physiotherapists and occupational therapists providing rehabilitative action at a distance. By using participatory research, we hope to get a model for implementing ICT changes in health care in a sustainable and userfriendly way.

Physiotherapy program

On the physiotherapy program, I teach most in a course called " in semester 3 and in a course called "Basic Acupuncture" in semester 6. I also examines students on their clinical education, and supervise and examine C-essays.

Master training Physiotherapy

I teach and examine the course "Design and application of qualitative methods" 7,5 hp which is the first year in the master's program. I as well teach in the qualitative part of the "Design and application of the scientific method" 3,5 hp of OMT Master's program. I also supervice Master thesis.

Supervision

I'm an assistant supervisor for Jenni Riekkola PhD student in occupational therapy, in the area of couples´ participation in respite care. Her thesis is based on qualitative studies where she has interviewed couples who use respite care and also interviewed staff in the same area. Jenni will defend her thesis in 2019.