Winter 2023 Harvard Public Health Magazine cites work by Berkman/Truesdale and Subramanian/Kim

Cover of Harvard Public Health Magazine

In the current issue of Harvard Public Health Magazine, Harvard Pop Center research projects (and researchers) are getting some attention. The book “Overtime: America’s Aging Workforce and the Future of Working Longer” co-edited by HCPDS Director Lisa Berkman and Visiting Scientist Beth C. Truesdale is spotlighted in the “Bookshelf” section, and novel research by Faculty Member S (Subu) V Subramanian and Visiting Scientist Rockli Kim that mapped undernutrition across India’s…

Harvard Chan School reports: “Study highlights inequalities in early childhood vaccination in India”

Arm of young child with band aids from vaccine

A study published in JAMA Open Network by Harvard Pop Center faculty member S (Subu) V Subramanian, PhD, visiting scientist Rockli Kim, and their colleagues reveals a pattern of vaccination rates among children (ages 12-23 months) in India; despite efforts to achieve increased vaccination rates nationally, the number of children in certain regions and states in India who did not receive routine vaccinations (first dose of the diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTP) vaccine)…

Study on optimism and longevity in women led by GSA Hayami Koga receives high Altmetric score for being cited & shared digitally

Altmetric score of 1717

A study led by our graduate student affiliate Hayami Koga (faculty member Laura Kubzansky is also an author) received the highest Altmetric score (1717) for being the most cited, shared, and “talked about” article in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society in 2022. The study, which was profiled in The Harvard Gazette, found that women across racial and ethnic groups who reported having a positive outlook, were more likely…

Bell Fellow A. Nicole Kreisberg talks with The Boston Globe about ways that we can solve the labor shortage problem

Head shot of Nicole K

Research by our Bell Fellow A. Nicole Kreisberg is cited in this piece in The Boston Globe: “America is running out of working-age adults. Here’s how to solve the labor shortage.” If you can’t access the above link, here is a pdf version of the piece.

“Change the workplace, not the worker”: More news about the Work and Well-Being Initiative’s role in advising the U.S. Surgeon General’s Office

Five essentials for workplace mental health and worker well-being

The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health has reported about the role that the Work and Well-Being Initiative (and its researchers) played in advising the U.S. Surgeon General on its new Framework on workplace mental health and well-being…            

Paid sick leave has added benefit of reducing gender inequality

Head shot of Daniel Schneider

Faculty member Daniel Schneider has co-authored a research article in Health Affairs that draws from the findings of the Shift Project regarding paid sick leave for low-wage workers and gender inequality. Schneider and his co-author Kristen Harknett report that there was limited access to paid leave, especially among women. In states and localities that paid for sick leave, however, the benefit was more widely accessed and the gender disparity was…

Researchers make the public health case for why alcohol labels are in need of an update

Glass of red wine from Flickr

Recent Harvard Bell Fellow Anna Grummon, PhD, and her colleague Marissa G. Hall, PhD, penned a Perspective in the New England Journal of Medicine about why the well documented risks of alcohol consumption should be better explained via redesigned warning labels in order to better inform consumers. The two co-authors, along with several other colleagues, also published a study in The American Journal of Preventive Medicine, that evaluated which words…

How is political party polarization affecting population health? Study delves into COVID-19 mortality rates and stress on ICU capacity from 4/21–3/22

Republican elephant and Democratic donkey

A novel study published in Lancet Regional Health – Americas by HCPDS faculty member Nancy Krieger, PhD, and her colleagues examines links between the political ideology of U.S. elected officials across all 435 U.S. Congressional districts and the COVID-19 outcomes of their constituents. Findings point to “the higher the exposure to political conservatism, the higher the COVID-19 mortality rates and stress on hospital intensive care unit (ICU) capacity.”   photo:…

NBC News reports: “Conservative policies linked to higher mortality among working-age people, except when it comes to marijuana”

Head shot of Jennifer Karas Montez and Jason Beckfield

A study published in PLOS ONE by our former RWJF Health & Society Scholar Jennifer Karas Montez, PhD, our associate director Jason Beckfield, PhD, and their colleagues has found that “more liberal policies on the environment, gun safety, labor, economic taxes, and tobacco taxes in a state [and more conservative marijuana policies] were associated with lower mortality in that state.”