The Impact of Childhood Social Disadvantage

How does social disadvantage in childhood correlate to cardiometabolic function and chronic disease status 40 years down the line? RWJF alumna Amy Non, along with Pop Center faculty members Ichiro Kawachi, Matthew Gilman, and Laura Kubzansky, take a look at how adverse social environments in early life play out across the life course. The study has been published in the American Journal of Epidemiology.

Minority neighborhoods found to have higher access to fast-food restaurants in the United States

The findings of a recent study co-authored by Harvard Pop Center faculty member S.V. Subramanian and Yerby Fellow Mariana C. Arcaya have been published in Health & Place. The study examines whether minority and poor neighborhoods have higher access to fast-food restaurants throughout the United States.

Harvard RWJF Alum Reanne Frank Comments on Hispanic Population Growth in Ohio Newspaper

Harvard RWJF Alum Reanne Frank is quoted in an article in The Columbus Dispatch on the growth of the Hispanic population. Frank, currently an associate professor of sociology at Ohio State University, explains that nationally Hispanic population is growing faster than non-Hispanic because more US-born Hispanics are reaching adulthood and having families, as opposed to the growth being driven by immigration.

Older American workers more likely to be depressed after job loss than their European counterparts

In support of a recent study on job loss and depression in the USA and Europe published in the International Journal of Epidemiology and reported by CBS News, Harvard Pop Center Director Lisa Berkman has written a commentary. The HSPH researchers and their colleagues found that older American workers (aged 50-64) are more likely to experience depression after job loss than their European counterparts. In Berkman’s commentary, The hidden and…

Can friends help friends quit smoking?

According to a new study published in  Journal of Health and Social Behavior and co-authored by RWJF alum Steven Haas, adolescents tend to be more powerful in influencing their friends to start smoking than in helping them to quit. “In order to become a smoker, kids need to know how to smoke, they need to know where to buy cigarettes and how to smoke without being caught, which are all things they…

Debt hurts more than just your credit rating

A recent study led by former RWJF scholar Elizabeth Sweet found that high student debt leads to a greater incidence of high blood pressure and depression in people ages 24-32. The study was featured in both Time and Forbes. With regard to cultural messages regarding an individual’s responsibility for debt, Sweet pointed out that debt, while often impossible to avoid, is stigmatized by our society. “[Debt] is going to be a way of…

Harvard Pop Center Director Lisa Berkman is appointed president of APC

Harvard Pop Center Director Lisa Berkman has recently been appointed president of The Association of Population Centers (APC). The organization, an independent group of universities and research groups whose mission is to foster collaborative demographic research and data sharing, translate basic population research for public policy decision-makers, and provide educational and training opportunities in population studies, was founded in 1991, and is open to any organization with a primary interest in…

Harvard Pop Center Bell Fellow Ian Salas Receives Prestigious Award

J.M. Ian Salas, PhD, one of our current Bell Fellows, was recently presented with the prestigious Dorothy S. Thomas Award by the Population Association of America (PAA) at their annual meeting in Boston. This award, which recognizes research focused on the interrelationships among social, economic and demographic variables, was given to Salas for a paper that was published while he was a doctoral student at the University of California Irvine…

Could text messages help to improve adherence among HIV-positive youth in Uganda?

A focus group study co-authored by former postdoc research fellow Sebastian Linnemayr sheds light into potential obstacles and areas to focus on to maximize the efficacy of this intervention, such as ensuring confidentiality and increasing accessibility.