Social Threats and Disparities
HSPH is examining the social and lifestyle forces affecting health including: disparities; addictions; sexually transmitted diseases; domestic violence; murder and suicide; war, natural disasters, and humanitarian relief.
FEATURED STORIES
Can doing good be done better?
Three HSPH humanitarian professionals talk about the field
Teaching leadership to leaders
The National Preparedness Leadership Initiative teaches seasoned professionals how to handle unprecedented disasters.
Can neighborhoods hurt our health?
Doctoral student Caitlin Eicher wants to understand how people’s perceptions of their local surroundings shape what they eat, how much they exercise, and other health behaviors.
Health care with dignity
Alum Robert Taube helps homeless people build healthier lives—and self-esteem.
ADDICTIONS/TOBACCO
Public housing, private vice
Following the passage in 23 states of laws that ban smoking in workplaces, restaurants, and bars, anti-smoking advocates increasingly train their sights on private spaces in public buildings.
Stealth tobacco
Products designed to evade control
Binge drinking 101
College Alcohol Study calls for “environmental” changes at U.S. schools
Dean’s message: Hollywood smoke-out
HSPH takes on tobacco on the silver screen
DISASTERS/WARS
Rebuilding shattered lives
When an earthquake struck in Chile, HSPH alum Karen Anderson and the community health group she founded were the first on the scene—and they’re still there.
Making sense of sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo
Researchers with the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative seek to understand and prevent sexual atrocities in the Congo
A tale of two countries: Q & A with HSPH professor Jennifer Leaning
On May 2, Cyclone Nargis hit the coast of Myanmar. Ten days later, an earthquake struck China’s mountainous Sichuan Province. Both events focused the world’s attention on the actions of China’s and Myanmar’s governments. What lessons might be drawn from these terrible events?
In the eye of the storm
What lessons do Hurricane Katrina and other humanitarian crises teach us about managing calamity?
DISPARITIES
Mr. Water
John Briscoe offers bold, unorthodox ideas for managing scarce water
Exposing the roots of health disparities
Sociologist David T. Williams looks for patterns linking race, socioeconomic status, and health
The America next door
When it comes to longevity, we are anything but equal
EARLY CHILDHOOD ISSUES
Healthy children: The best investment
Early childhood programs can work, science shows
VIOLENCE/SUICIDE/HOMICIDE
Guns and suicide: A fatal link
In the United States, suicides outnumber homicides almost two to one. Perhaps the real tragedy behind suicide deaths—about 30,000 a year, one for every 45 attempts—is that so many could be prevented.
Death by violent means: Who’s at risk?
A CDC database piloted by HSPH is galvanizing prevention measures
Hidden wounds
In the histories of young black men, a doctor sees key pieces to the urban violence puzzle
Stopping the violence
Presidential Scholar Ana Díaz helps youth find a better way
Photos, left to right: Getty Images/Photodisc, ©Hans Deryk/Reuters, Getty Images