Gunhild Tidemann Okholm

Gunhild Tidemann Okholm serves as a Postdoc and Guest Researcher in the Department of Public Health, Section of Environmental Health at the University of Copenhagen's Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences. Her work bridges public health, psychology, and epidemiology with a focus on cognitive research.

Okholm holds a background combining public health with psychology and epidemiology. Her primary research explores the bidirectional relationship between psychological characteristics and health, with special emphasis on intelligence as a predictor of somatic and psychiatric diseases. She has extensive experience with large register-based studies and advanced epidemiological methods including sibling comparison designs. Her current research vision focuses on identifying psychosocial, pharmacological and disease-related predictors of cognitive decline and development.

Her recent publications demonstrate a strong focus on cognitive function across the lifespan, examining factors like diabetes, depression, substance use, and environmental exposures. Her work frequently employs large Danish cohort studies and register data, with particular attention to longitudinal changes in cognitive abilities from early adulthood to late midlife.

Okholm actively contributes to academic supervision and teaching within the Faculty of Health Sciences. She has co-supervised 7 BSc and MSc students since 2019 and teaches medical psychology across multiple programs including Medicine, Public Health Sciences, Odontology, and the Master's program in Health Science.

She is currently the Co-PI of the DiaKO-19 study (n=2661), which investigates the influence of type 2 diabetes and depression on cognitive decline. This study re-assessed cognitive abilities of men who completed the Børge Priens Prøve intelligence test at conscription (mean age 19) and again at follow-up (mean age 67).