Height & health; new study looks at adults in China, Ghana, India, Mexico, Russia, South Africa

PGDA Fellow Mark McGovern, PhD,  has published a paper in The Journal of the Economics of Ageing that shows a positive association between height and various measures of health in adults in six emerging economies, each expected to experience significant increases in the mean age of their populations over the coming decades.

Obese Kids Likely to Become Obese Teens, Study Shows

Mark Schuster, MD, PhD, a Harvard Pop Center affiliated faculty member, is lead author on a study in Pediatrics that shows that over 80% of kids obese at age 11 are obese at age 16.  The study, online now and in the upcoming December print issue, is featured in U.S. News and World Report and Canada’s Global News.

New indices based on local distributions of wealth may offer more accurate insights into health inequalities in India

Recent Bell Fellow Daniel Corsi, PhD, has co-authored a study published in PLoSOne that introduces a new approach for analyzing nationally representative household survey data. By analyzing local distributions of wealth, Corsi and his colleagues hope to offer wealth index scores that will serve as more valid indicators of wealth and will correlate well with health outcomes.

Study estimates tobacco tax increases from 1970-2005 saved over 50,000 lives in U.S. in 2010

A study published in Tobacco Control co-authored by Harvard Pop Center Associate Director David Canning, PhD, has shown that higher tobacco taxes lead to lower total mortality rates and avoided deaths, and suggests that strong tobacco tax policies are essential to improving overall population health.

Differences in maternal diagnoses may not be the driver in widely varying Cesarean delivery rates across hospitals

Harvard Pop Center Yerby Fellow Mariana Arcaya, ScD, and faculty member S V Subramanian (Subu), PhD, and colleague have published a study in PLOS Medicine that examines whether the current wide variation in Cesarean section rates across US hospitals is attributable to differences in maternal clinical diagnoses and patient characteristics, or to hospital-level differences in the use of Cesarean delivery. Learn more from this HSPH news post.

Prenatal social adversity associated with high-risk levels of inflammation in adulthood

According to a study co-authored by Harvard Pop Center affiliated faculty members Ichiro Kawachi, MD, PhD, and Laura Kubzansky, PhD, Harvard RWJF HSS Alumna Amy Non, PhD, and colleagues, prenatal social adversity was associated with a 3-fold risk for elevated levels of  C-reactive protein (CRP) in adulthood, which indicates high risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD).

Bell Fellow Ian Salas Co-authors Study on Economic Lifecycle of Average Filipino

Harvard Pop Center Bell Fellow J.M. Ian Salas, PhD, has co-authored a study in the Journal of Economics of Ageing that compares the patterns of consumption, labor income earned, and financing of consumption at different ages or stages of the lifecycle of the average Filipino between the years 1999 and 2007 using the Philippine National Transfer Account (NTA). The findings suggest that there has been an overall increase in per…

Is Juice Gateway Drink to Higher BMI?

Pop Center affiliated faculty members Matthew Gillman, MD, and Elsie Taveras, MD, have published a study in Obesity that examines the significance of beverage consumption during infancy and childhood and found that higher juice intake during infancy (at one year) was associated with higher juice and sugar-sweetened beverage intake and higher BMI during early and mid-childhood. The findings suggest that early juice intake could be a target for obesity prevention,…

Ethnic Disparities in U.S. Asthma Prevalence Up Over Last Decade

A study published in American Journal of Public Health co-authored by Pop Center faculty members Ichiro Kawachi, MD, PhD, Maria M. Glymour, PhD, and  S V Subramanian (Subu), PhD, reveals that disparities in asthma prevalence by racial/ethnic groups increased in the last decade, with non-Hispanic Blacks and Puerto Rican Hispanics at greater risk.