Posted on

PGDA study examines the role of chess performance on cognition

Image of brain with chess pieces inside

The Program on Global Demography of Aging at Harvard (PGDA) has launched a study examining the role of chess performance on cognitive ability. The Chess Cognition Study is led by PI David Canning. The study is currently looking for volunteers to complete a virtual interview, which includes a series of cognition tests. Participants must be at least 50 years of age, a member of the United States Chess Federation (USCF), and…

Continue reading “PGDA study examines the role of chess performance on cognition”

Posted on

First study to map child undernutrition in India by village shows greatest variation at these micro levels

Screenshot of website dashboard for villages in India

A study published in PNAS by Harvard Pop Center Visiting Scientist Rockli Kim, ScD, faculty member S V Subramanian, PhD, and colleagues that utilizes “state-of-the-art data science techniques” to map and predict child undernutrition across the nearly 600,000 villages in India now provides governments at the most local level with this critical information about their constituents. To learn more about the potential value of such breakthrough, precision mapping, read the…

Continue reading “First study to map child undernutrition in India by village shows greatest variation at these micro levels”

Posted on

Krieger et. al. call for medical journals to publish more empirical studies on racism and health

Head shot of Nancy Krieger

In this analysis published in Health Affairs, Nancy Krieger, professor of social epidemiology,  and her colleagues take a look back at how many times the word “racism” appears in a search of scientific literature published over the last three decades by four of the world’s leading medical journals. The authors have also authored this piece published in Time Magazine that introduces the findings of their study to a wide and…

Continue reading “Krieger et. al. call for medical journals to publish more empirical studies on racism and health”

Posted on

Geographic Insights Lab rolls out two new interactive dashboards: one for tracking NFHS data in India, the other for COVID-19 vaccination by U.S. congressional district

Geographic Insights Lab Logo

The National Family and Health Survey (NFHS) provides critical data on India’s health, nutrition, and population indicators. The Government of India utilizes many of these indicators to formulate policies and track its progress. The team at Geographic Insights Lab presents an interactive dashboard that systematically allows multiple stakeholders to compare 55 indicators for 300+ districts in India.  These indicators can also be compared across 300+ Parliamentary Constituencies in India with…

Continue reading “Geographic Insights Lab rolls out two new interactive dashboards: one for tracking NFHS data in India, the other for COVID-19 vaccination by U.S. congressional district”

Posted on

The dangers of ignoring the other epidemic during the COVID-19 pandemic

Heavy set woman sitting on a bench

Jason Block contributes his public health expertise to this op-ed in The Washington Post on the acute (and chronic) risks of ignoring the obesity issue in the U.S. “The reason obesity is so stigmatized is that people think of weight as a choice . . . It’s especially unfair when we have a society that makes opportunities to gain weight so ubiquitous.”

Posted on

Announcing our next cohort of Bell Fellows!

Map of countries with a magnifying glass hovering over them with the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies logo layered on top

We are pleased to announce that after an extensive and competitive recruitment process, three exceptional scholars will be joining the Harvard Pop Center community as Bell Fellows this coming fall (2021–2023). Brittney Butler’s research investigates anti-Black structural racism as a risk factor for Pregnancy Induced Hypertensive Disorders (PIHDs) among Black women. During her fellowship, she plans to build on her work by exploring neighborhood-level determinants and will incorporate new theoretical…

Continue reading “Announcing our next cohort of Bell Fellows!”