District-level look at fertility change and gender bias in India

Visiting scientist Sanjay K. Mohanty, PhD, has published a paper that expands fertility change and gender bias research in India to the district level. This new research, published in the Journal of Biosocial Science, suggests that a comprehensive strategy to reduce the gender differential in child mortality and curb sex-selective abortion to improve the child sex ratio would be helpful in India.

New study finds white men and women have significantly lower rates of suicide in states with higher levels of social capital

A new study co-authored by affiliated faculty member Ichiro Kawachi, MD, PhD, investigates whether state levels of social capital are associated with rates of completed suicides in the fifty U.S. states.

New link between child maltreatment and dysregulated stress reactivity patterns

Former Harvard Pop Center RWJF Alums Kate McLaughlin, PhD, and Margaret Sheridan, PhD, have co-authored a new study that looks at the connection between child maltreatment and dysregulated stress reactivity patterns in a new way.

Boston Adolescents Living in Socially Fragmented Neighborhoods Are Less Physically Active

According to a new study co-authored by affiliated faculty member Ichiro Kawachi, MD, PhD, Boston adolescents who live in neighborhoods that have decreased residential stability were more likely to be physically inactive. This was the only socioeconomic characteristic that was found to be associated with physical inactivity.

Joyce Rosenthal publishes paper on vulnerability to heat-related mortality in New York City

Faculty member Joyce Klein Rosenthal has just published a new paper in Health and Place. “We hope that this neighborhood-level ecological analysis may help to inform the search for adaptive responses and modifiable exposures, as it examines finer-scale patterns of urban vulnerability than previous studies,” says Rosenthal of the study, which is the first analysis of the relationship between neighborhood characteristics and excess mortality in New York City neighborhoods during very hot…

Largest single donation in Harvard’s history is a game (and name) changer for HSPH

An unprecedented $350 million dollar gift from the Morningside Foundation, a philanthropic organization established by the family of the late T.H. Chan, will support HSPH as it tackles global health threats such as pandemics, harmful physical and social environments, poverty and humanitarian crises, and failing health systems.  Read about this game- (and name-) changing event in the Harvard Gazette.

Impact of schedule control on quality of care in nursing homes

Pop Center director Lisa Berkman and faculty member Cassandra Okechukwu have contributed to a study that examines whether the quality of care in nursing homes can be predicted by schedule control (workers’ ability to decide work hours), independently of other staffing characteristics. The study found that higher schedule control did indeed have the power to improve quality of care, as it was associated a lower prevalence of pressure ulcers.

Erika Sabbath, former Pop Center fellow, receives K01 grant

Erika Sabbath, who recently joined the faculty of the Graduate School of Social Work at Boston College after completing a post-doctoral fellowship at the Pop Center, has received a major grant from the CDC and its National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. This K01 grant will give her the opportunity to focus intensively on her project “Quantifying Economic & Health Effects of Psychosocial Workplace Exposures.” Congratulations to Erika!