Westlund, Knut, MD (1923-2007)

Knut Westlund was one of the early researchers in the epidemiology of coronary heart disease and diabetes. He studied the large north-south gradient of cardiovascular disease in Finnmark in the north and Sogn and Fjordane and Oppland in the south, but later surveyed all counties and provided risk factor trends for Norway. He also had a key role from 1973 – 1974 in the initiation of the Tromsø Study, the long-term prospective study of cardiovascular epidemiology conducted in the most northern university town of Scandinavia.