Anna-Karin Welmer has a PhD and a master’s degree in physiotherapy from Karolinska Institutet. She has been a postdoc in the medical group at ARC since April 2009 working under the supervision of Professor Laura Fratiglioni. She also works part-time as a physiotherapist at Karolinska University Hospital. Currently Anna-Karin’s primary area of research interest is the epidemiology of physical functioning and multimorbidity among elderly people.

Previously, Anna-Karin worked at the Sahlgrenska Academy in Gothenburg where she researched health among the oldest old. Prior to starting her PhD-studies she worked at a geriatric clinic in Stockholm. In December 2007, she completed her doctoral thesis, entitled “Associations between body functions, activities and health-related quality of life from onset until 18 months after stroke”. The overall aims of the thesis were to describe body functions, activities and HRQL in stroke patients and to analyse the associations between those variables at one week, three and 18 months after stroke onset. During and since completion of her doctorate Anna-Karin has been teaching on both the undergraduate and master’s level physiotherapy education programs.

Doctoral thesis
Welmer AK. Associations between body functions, activities and health-related quality of life from onset until 18 months after stroke. Stockholm: Karolinska Institutet; 2007.

Articles
Dahlin-Ivanoff S, Gosman-Hedström G, Edberg AK, Wilhelmson K, Eklund K, Duner A, Ziden L, Welmer AK, Landahl S. Elderly persons in the risk zone. Design of a multidimensional, health-promoting, randomised three-armed controlled trial for "prefrail" people of 80+ years living at home. BMC Geriatr. 2010;26;10:27.

Welmer AK, Widén Holmqvist L, Sommerfeld D.K. Location and severity of spasticity initially and at 3 and 18 months after stroke. Eur J Neurol. 2010;17:720-725.

Welmer AK, Widén Holmqvist L, Sommerfeld DK. Limited fine hand use after stroke and its association with other disabilities. J Rehabil Med 2008;40:603-608.

Welmer AK, von Arbin M, Murray V, Widén Holmqvist L, Sommerfeld DK. Determinants of mobility and self-care in older patients with stroke: importance of somatosensory and perceptual functions. Phys Ther. 2007;87:1633-1641.

Welmer AK, von Arbin M, Widén Holmqvist L, Sommerfeld D.K. Spasticity and its association with functioning and health-related quality of life 18 months after stroke. Cerebrovasc Dis. 2006;21:247-253.

Welmer AK, Widén Holmqvist L, Sommerfeld D.K. Hemiplegic limb synergies in stroke patients. Am J Phys Med Rehabil. 2006;85:112-119.