Given that health is improving at a greater rate among the better off than among those of lower socioeconomic status, will health inequities become greater over time? Pop Center faculty members Nancy Krieger and Jason Beckfield were part of a team that looked at 50 years of data on socioeconomic health inequities in the US. The study, published in the International Journal of Epidemiology, found that health inequities need not rise as population health improves.
Almost half of nonsmoking pregnant women studied in NYC show signs of secondhand smoke
Former Pop Center RWJF Scholar Summer Hawkins, PhD, has co-authored a paper indicating that nearly half of nonsmoking pregnant women studied in NYC had elevated cotinine levels despite living in a city with comprehensive tobacco control policies. Study results suggest that “health professionals need to assess sources of SHS exposure during pregnancy and promote smoke-free environments to improve maternal and fetal health.”
RWJF Fellow Christina Roberto co-authors paper on multipronged approach to combat obesity
Christina Roberto, PhD, a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health & Society scholar at the Harvard Pop Center, has co-authored a study which explores a multipronged approach to addressing obesity.
The Optimal Age of Retirement
What’s the best age at which to retire? This question is certainly a current hot topic. David Canning, who co-directs the Pop Center, and David Bloom, head of the Program on the Global Demography of Aging, have developed a new model for predicting the optimal age of retirement and have published their work in The Scandinavian Journal of Economics. Their model predicts continuing declines in the optimal retirement age, despite rising life…
Post-Katrina Happiness
Mary Waters, PhD, M.E. Zukerman Professor of Sociology, Department of Sociology, Harvard University, and Pop Center Yerby Fellow Mariana Arcaya, ScD, are co-authors on a study published in the Journal of Happiness Studies titled “Happily Ever After? Pre-and-Post Disaster Determinants of Happiness Among Survivors of Hurricane Katrina.”
What is driving the growing geographical inequalities in suicide in Japan?
Pop Center faculty members Ichiro Kawachi, MD, PhD, and SV Subramanian, PhD, are co-authors on a study that examines this question in a paper titled “Prefecture-level economic conditions and risk of suicide in Japan: a repeated cross-sectional analysis 1975–2010” which has been published in the European Journal of Public Health.
Low birth weight not associated with poor health outcomes among young adults in Brazil
Although a growing literature suggests that low birth weight increases the risk of poor health outcomes in adulthood, a new study co-authored by Pop Center faculty members SV Subramanian and Gunther Fink has found evidence to the contrary. Their findings, published in PLoS One, reveal that low birth weight did not result in poor health outcomes among young adults in Brazil. The researchers hope to expand upon on these findings by conducting further studies…
RWJF Scholar Christina Roberto co-authors study on impact of ‘food addiction’ on food policy
Pop Center RWJF Health & Society Scholar Christina Roberto, PhD, has co-authored a recently published paper titled “The Impact of ‘Food Addiction’ on Food Policy” that examines how lessons learned from alcohol and tobacco addiction could inform protective policies relating to unhealthy food.
Thurston’s findings stress importance of targeting economically disadvantaged women in fight against heart disease
Rebecca Thurston, former RWJF scholar at the Pop Center, has co-authored a study recently published in Stroke, a journal of the American Heart Association, on the link between consistently low socioeconomic status in midlife and heart disease later in life.
Former RWJF scholar Reanne Frank co-authors study on role of English proficiency in immigrant integration
Former RWJF scholar Reanne Frank co-authors study titled “Beyond English proficiency: Rethinking immigrant integration” published in Social Science Research.