Sara Bergwall

PhD Student

Sara Bergwall holds a Bsc in Development Studies and a Msc in Public Health (MPH), both from Lund University. She has also taken numerous extracurricular courses in statistics and statistical software. She began her PhD studies in late 2017 with a general focus on diet, physical activity and cardiovacular disease.

Sara began her research career as a summer resarch fellow in 2017 with a project on diet quality and abdominal aortic aneurysm. However, it was already when writing the thesis at the MPH programme that her interest for research began. She conducted a questionnaire study aimed to elucidate if physical activity on prescription increased overall rates of physical activity in a sedentary population.

Her main interests are epidemiology and prevention, in particular physical activity. She also enjoys supervising and mentoring students.

Publications

Added sugar intake and its associations with incidence of seven different cardiovascular diseases in 69,705 Swedish men and women
December 24, 2024 by Suzanne Janzi
INTRODUCTION: The adverse health effects of sugar-sweetened beverage intake are well-established, but the implications of overall added sugar intake remain unclear. We investigated the associations between intake of added sugar and various sugar-sweetened foods and beverages and risk of 7 cardiovascular diseases in 69,705 participants aged 45-83 years (47.2% female) […]
High versus low-added sugar consumption for the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease
January 5, 2022 by Sara Bergwall
BACKGROUND: High intake of added sugar have been suggested to impact the risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD). Knowledge on the subject can contribute to preventing CVD.
Leisure-time physical activities and the risk of cardiovascular mortality in the Malmö diet and Cancer study
October 27, 2021 by Sara Bergwall
CONCLUSIONS: Moderate- and high-intensity leisure-time physical activities reduced the risk of cardiovascular mortality. With regard to total leisure-time physical activity, the largest risk reduction was observed for 15-25 MET-h/week (equivalent to walking for approximately 5 h/week).
The association between dietary intake, lifestyle and incident symptomatic peripheral arterial disease among individuals with diabetes mellitus: insights from the Malmö Diet and Cancer study
December 17, 2019 by Erika Lilja
With the rising prevalence of both diabetes mellitus (DM) and peripheral arterial disease (PAD), the aim of this project was to examine the association between dietary intake and lifestyle on the risk of developing PAD among individuals with DM. The Malmö Diet and Cancer study was a prospective cohort study […]
Healthy diet and fiber intake are associated with decreased risk of incident symptomatic peripheral artery disease – A prospective cohort study
August 22, 2019 by Andrea Kulezic
Peripheral artery disease (PAD) is caused by atherosclerosis and associated with an increased risk of leg amputation, cardiovascular disease, and death. A healthy diet has been shown to reduce the risk of cardiovascular events, but relationships between diet, fiber intake, and incidence of PAD are virtually unknown. The aim was […]
Intake of fibre and plant foods and the risk of abdominal aortic aneurysm in a large prospective cohort study in Sweden
July 24, 2019 by Sara Bergwall
CONCLUSIONS: A high intake of fruits and berries and vegetables, in particular leaf vegetables, are associated with a decreased risk of developing AAA.

Nutritional Epidemiology

PhD Student