About me................

My name is Maria Müllersdorf and have, as you surely understand by now, the dogs for leisure-time and as a great source for relaxation. I enjoy hunting, running field-trials and enter shows as it gives me great excitement. Excitement of different kinds and levels in different events.  I guess I like to win and the fact that I have chosen to have the two different types of cockers might be a result of that. The best  type of cocker for hunting and the best for show - both for love and accompanion.   

 I live in the countryside, a couple of kilometres outside the town of Strängnäs together with my husband, Paul Anderson. Paul shares my interest in dogs even though his focus is on the hunting and working springer spaniels. In addition to the cockers we also have a German wachtel-dog and a labrador.

My profession is occupational therapist, meaning that I have worked with people who by accident or disease have need for rehabilitation. My special professional interest have always been to work with people suffering from longterm/reccurent pain. My academic degree is today associate professor and have the position of a director of research.  

After a very interesting and most practical workingtime as an occupational therapist for 15 years, I now spend my working hours with science work and teaching at the Mälardalens University, sited in Eskilstuna/Västerås. I really have a great time and I could recommend this type of work to anyone with this interest.

Focus for my research is occupational therapy, pain and needs assessments and resulted in a disseration in september 2001 at Uppsala University, Faculty of Medicine. The title of my thesis is "Needs Assessment in Occupational Therapy. Studies of Persons with Long-Term/Recurrent Pain." 

 The studies I have published and have in manuscript is the following.

  • A critical literatureanalysis "Needs Assessment Methods in Health Care and Rehabilitation" published in Critical Reviews in Physical and Rehabilitation Medicin, 10(1):57-73, 1998.

  • A prevalencestudy, national-wide survey with 10.000 participiants; "Assessing Health Care Need. The Actual State of Self-Perceived Activity Limitation and Participation Restrictions Due to Pain in a Nationwide Swedish Population". Published in the International Journal of Rehabilitation Research 23; 201-207, 2000. 

  • Survey concerning pain, activity limitation and treatment with 1849 participiants with longterm and/or recurrent pain. "The actual state of the effects, treatment and incidence of disabling pain in a gender perspective - Swedish study". Published in the journal  Disability and Rehabilitation, 22; 840-854, 2000.

  • An analyse of the predictors which indicate need of measures in rehabilitation/occupational therapy for persons with longterm/recurrent pain. "Factors Indicating Need of Rehabilitation - Occupational Therapy Among Persons with Long-Term and/or Recurrent Pain". Published in the journal the International Journal of Rehabilitation Research 23; 281-294.

  • A survey of occupational therapists needs assessments of persons with long-term pain and the mesaures/interventions they suggest to meet the needs. "Occupational Therapists´Assessments of Adults with Long-Term Pain, the Swedish Experience". In press for publication in the journal Occupational Therapy International, 2001.

  •  A survey of needs and problems as perceived by persons with long-term pain. "Needs and Problems Related to Occupational Therapy Among Adult Swedes with Long-Term Pain". In press for publication in the journal Scandinavian Journal of Occupational Therapy, 9(1);1-23, 2002.

  • Litteraturereview concerning the concept of occupation based on international scientific articles. "An integrative review combined with a semantic review to explore the meaning of Swedish terms compatible with occupation, activity, doing and task " Scandianvian Journal of Occupational Therapy 2008, 15(1).The photo to the right is of my doctoral friends from the party after my dissertation

  • A qualitative study of novice students attending the occupational therapy program concerning their view of the concept of occupation. "Occupation as described by novice occupational therapy students in Sweden: The first step in a theory generative process grounded in empirical data", Scandinavian Journal of Occupational Therapy. 2008, 15(1)

  • A follow-up study of the occupational therpy students concerning their view of occupationafter three years of education. "Occupation as described by occupational therapist students - a follow up study." Scandinavian Journal of Occupational Therapy (2009).

  • A study comparing adolescents aged 16-20 in high school concerning their health. Acta Paediatrica (2010) (a doctoral student project).

  • An interview study with schoolnurses concerning their experiences of working with obeses children. Scandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences (2009).

  • The significance of pets for people concerning their perception of health and wellbeing. A comparative study of people with and without pets (n=43,000). Scandinavian Journal of Public Health (2010).

  • A delphistudy including experts working in pain clinics. The study focus on indicators of rehabilitation for persons with long term pain needing specialized care. Musculoskeletal Care (2010) (doctoral student project).

  • Focus group study concerning occupational therapists view on pain patients need for occupational therapy. Occupational Therapy International (2009) (doctoral student project).

  • A qualitative study of iraqui women who fled to Sweden and suffering from longterm pain from Iraq. " The magnitude of reciprocity in chronic pain management - experiences of dispersed ethnic populations of muslim women. Accepted in the Journal of Caring Sciences (2010).
  • A qualitative inteview-study of persons with chronic pain concering their daily occupations. Nursing and Healthcare for chronic illness (2010) (doctoral student project).

  • A Delphi-study how Swedish academically schooled occupational therapists view on the concept of occupation. Scandinavian Journal of Occupational Therapy (2010).
  • The prevalence and perception of pets among young people in the age of 13-17 year. Accepted for publication in the journal of Antrozoös (2011).

 If you are interested in any of the papers or my thesis ("Needs assessment in ccupational therapy. Studies of persons with long-term/recurrent pain").  - please don´t hesitate to contact me!

My mailing address is: Hummelslindan, Vansö, S-645 92   Strängnäs, SWEDEN; e-mail: maria.mullersdorf@meryl.se and the phone-numbers are: +46 152 200 93; +46 708 200 930