Research
I care greatly about helping individuals make a positive change in their life to better their own and others physical and mental health. In particular, my focus is on the development and evaluation of novel interventions, including research on the methodological advancements and limitations of both.
Some of the research projects which I work on have grown into research programs and are presented below. Please see Publications for published work.
MHED-Lab
I am the founder and leader of MHED-Lab at Linköping University. MHED-lab conducts interventional, observational, methodological, and health economical research focused mainly on health behaviour and behaviour change interventions. The aim of the research done within the lab is twofold: first, to help individuals make a positive change in their life to better their own and others physical and mental health, second, to study, develop, and promote research methods and modeling techniques to improve scientific rigour in health and medical sciences.
Within the lab, we:
- Develop, evaluate, and disseminate digital behaviour change interventions.
- Study research methods with a view to improve scientific rigour.
- Develop software to support the design and evaluation of studies of interventions and registry based research.
- Support external research projects with modeling and analysis expertise.
Research programs
The SIM research program
SIM
Series of studies of the long-term outcomes of digital behavioral interventions. Use of agent-based models to simulate the incidence of non-communicable diseases and mental health conditions conditional on the availability of interventions.
Text messaging alcohol interventions
TOPHAT
Six projects focusing on the use of mobile phones in alcohol interventions. Including four trials, one feasability study and a meta-analysis.
mHealth - Multiple Lifestyle Behaviors
MoBILE
Seven projects, including seven trials and qualitative studies, of mobile phone multiple lifestyle behaviour interventions among different populations across the lifespan. Including meta-analysis, registry studies, and dissemination projects.
Text messaging smoking cessation interventions
NEXit
Five projects, including trials and qualitative studies, of text messaging smoking cessation interventions among five different populations: college and high school students, patients with elective surgery, primary health care visitors, and online help-seekers.
College students' mental health
MENTAL
Four projects focusing on college students' mental health, including a trial of a text message intervention, WHO-WMH-ICS surveys, Covid-19 specific surveys, and a meta-analysis.
Electronic screening and brief intervention to reduce risky drinking
AMADEUS
Two trials of brief alcohol interventions emailed to college students in Sweden. Both effectivness and efficacy trials, including a unique study of research participation effects.
Dissemination
Behaviour change interventions which are the produce of scientific research, and which have been proven to be effective, should be disseminated to those who may benefit from them. I therefore always ensure that effective interventions that stem from my own research are available for free to the general public.
Student healthcare alcohol portal
Electronic screening and brief intervention for reduced alcohol consumption proven effective among university students. Since 2010, student healthcare units across Sweden have been sending email invitations to students to screen themselves and be given advice for change. The first decade saw over 1 million emails sent with over 200 000 students responding.
Mobile messaging smoking cessation intervention (NEXit)
Freely available 12-week smoking cessation intervention delivered via mobile messages. Effectiveness established among online help-seekers, and university and high school students.
Digital alcohol intervention (Minska)
Freely available digital alcohol intervention. Effectiveness established among online help-seekers.
Teaching
I have taught extensively at both medical and technical faculites since 2009, and have been examiner and/or supervisor for over 50 bachelor and master theses (see full Teaching history). I am currently examiner, course leader, and/or lecturer for the five courses presented below.
Epidemiology
Medical Faculty PhD course
This is a course designed to help you ask the right questions. Sometimes these questions may be directed to an epidemiologist, sometimes to a data analyst, and sometimes to yourself.
Good research stems from knowing that you will have to make bad choices. But knowing which ones are least bad, and which ones get you closer to your goal, is key in moving your research field forward. You should appreciate the complexities, understand what can be done to alleviate difficulties, and always report your findings in light of your decisions.
Health and Disease 3
Medical Faculty course for Medical Program
The course provides an introduction to the scientific process and scientific methods for students at the medical program at Linköping university. I am responsible for the parts of the course that concern epidemiology and systematic reviews.
In 2023, I was awarded the Andreas Rousseau prize for best lecture of the year at the medical program at Linköping University. The award was given for my lecture on systematic reviews.
eHealth: Aims and Applications
Masters program in Medical Science
This course is an introduction to eHealth which aims to make the concept of eHealth more transparent with an anchoring in its interdisciplinary nature. The course is taken by both students from both the medical and technical faculty, and they interact in learning about the interprofessional nature of the core topics.
eHealth: Digital Applications for Promoting Health and Preventing Disease
Masters program in Medical Science
This course has three themes which focus on how digital applications for promoting health and preventing disease are developed, implemented and evaluated.
Behaviour change theories and behaviour change techniques are discussed in conjunction with user participatory design of digital applications. Factors which affect implementation of innovations within an organisation, and how innovations can be evaluated with respect to both effectivness and dissemination, are discussed from both theoretical and methodological points of view.
Project Semester including Bachelor Thesis Project: Secure Systems
Information Technology, Master of Science in Engineering
This is a semester long course including two projects (one of which results in a bachelor thesis). The course includes a range of topics, including: security terminology and security principles, analyzing situations from an information security standpoint, consideration of risks and threats, safe identification and authentication, and basic cryptography.
The course also includes group work and learning how to plan and execute projects.
Curriculum Vitae
Marcus Bendtsen, PhD
Senior Associate Professor of Biostatistics in Public Health
Docent in Medical Informatics
Department of Health Medicine and Caring Sciences, Linköping University
- Email: marcus.bendtsen@liu.se
- ORCID: 0000-0002-8678-1164
- Bluesky: @marcusbendtsen.bsky.social
- X: @marcusbendtsen
Academic positions
Senior Associate Professor of Biostatistics in Public Health
2023 - Present
Department of Health Medicine and Caring Sciences, Linköping University
Senior Lecturer in Experimental Social Medicine and Public Health
2019 - 2023
Department of Health Medicine and Caring Sciences, Linköping University
Postdoc in Public Health
2017 - 2019
Department of Medical and Health Sciences, Linköping University
PhD student in Computer Science
2013 - 2017
Department of Computer and Information Science, Linköping University
Research assistant
2012 - 2013
Santa Anna Research Institute
Department of Computer and Information Science, Linköping University
Department of Medical and Health Sciences, Linköping University
Teaching assistant and technical consultant
2009 - 2010
Department of Computer and Information Science, Linköping University
Södertörn University
Education
Doctor of Philosophy, Computer Science
2013 - 2017
Linköping University, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Linköping, Sweden
Master of Information Technology
2011 - 2013
Linköping University, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Linköping, Sweden
Bachelor of Programming
2009-2011
Linköping University, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Linköping, Sweden
Affiliations, appointments and memberships
Research groups, programs and initiatives
- Founder and leader of MHED-Lab at Linköping University.
- Primary investigator and coordinator for the SIM research program.
- Co-coordinator for the mHealth Multiple Lifestyle Behaviours (MoBILE) research program at Linköping University.
- Participating collaborator in the WHO World Mental Health International College Student (WMH-ICS) Initiative at Harvard Medical School.
Research networks and societies
- International Network of Brief Interventions for Alcohol & Other Drugs (INEBRIA) - Elected member of the coordinating committee.
- Special Interest Group on Intervention Research Methods (SIG-IRM) - Founder.
- Special Interest Group on Digital Approaches Screening and Brief Intervention for Alcohol and Substance Misuse (eSIG INEBRIA) - Member.
- Special Interest Group on Brief Interventions among Youth (YouthSIG INEBRIA) - Member.
- Svenska Föreningen för Alkohol- och Drogforskning (SAD) - Member.
Journals and Conferences
- Trials - Associate Editor.
- Journal of Medical Internet Research - Editor for e-collection on Bayesian Methods in Medical Research.
- INEBRIA conference - Scientific committee (2024).
- Machine Learning and Data Mining for Sports Analytics - Program committee.
- Reviewer for several leading journals, including British Medical Journal (BMJ), Addiction, Journal of Medical Internet Research, International Journal of Approximate Reasoning, etc.
Committees and panels
- The Swedish Cancer Society - Prioritisation committee Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Public Health - (2022-27).
- The French Institute for Public Health Research (L’Institut pour la Recherche en Santé Publique (IReSP)) - Scientific committee (2021,2024).
- The French Institute for Public Health Research (L’Institut pour la Recherche en Santé Publique (IReSP)) - External expert (2025).
- Department of Health, Medicine and Caring Sciences - Internal reviewer of grant applications (ongoing since 2023)
- Department of Health, Medicine and Caring Sciences - Examination committee (ongoing since 2025)
Examination committee
- PhD defence Josefin Östh (2025, Karolinska Institute)
- Half-time seminar for Ben Raysmith (2024, Linköping University)
- Half-time seminar for Josefine Östh (2024, Karolinska Institutet)
Other grant review assignments
- Swedish Research Council - Grant for interdisciplinary research environments - External reviewer.
Supervision
- Primary supervisor for Katarina Åsberg - PhD (Linköping University)
- Primary supervisor for Katarina Ulfsdotter Gunnarsson - PhD (Linköping University)
- Supervisor for Joel Crawford - Postdoctor (Linköping university)
- Supervisor for Elizabeth Collier Hörlin - Postdoctor (Linköping university)
- Supervisor for Dongni Zhang - Postdoctor (Linköping university)
- Secondary supervisor for Agnes Winsa - PhD (Linköping university)
- Secondary supervisor for Patricia Sköld - PhD (Linköping university)
- Secondary supervisor for Hanna Vestala - PhD (Linköping university)
- Secondary supervisor for Johanna Sandborg - PhD (Karolinska Institutet)
Publications
Trial main findings
Trial secondary findings
Methodological
Reviews and meta-analyses
Mixed and Qualitative
Observational studies
Protocols
Abstracts
Funding
Presentations
Media
Teaching history
Courses
Medical program individual projects (supervision)
- Edvin Ekman (2025) - Simulation of long-term outcomes of a digital smoking cessation intervention
- Lovisa af Ekenstam (2024) - AiM for resilience: a novel digital intervention for stressed people