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What is driving the decline in life expectancy in the U.S., and what can be done about it?

Abandoned automobile factory

An op-ed on health policy published in JAMA explains why the healthcare sector can only skim the surface when it comes to addressing the deep structural drivers in declining life expectancy.  The authors —Atheendar S. Venkataramani, MD, PhD, former Harvard RWJF Health & Society Scholar Rourke O’Brien, PhD, and Harvard Pop Center faculty member Alexander C. Tsai, MD, PhD —make a strong case for why the U.S. needs to enact bold…

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Geographic Insights Lab presents LIVE COVID-19 vaccine rollout dashboard for India by state

Dashboard of the COVID-19 vaccine tracker in India

The Geographic Insights Lab is an initiative committed to improving public policies by honing in on targeted geopolitical units (such as congressional districts in the U.S. and parliamentary constituencies in India) in order to mine more precise population health and development data. This Lab, led by S V Subramanian, professor of population health and geography at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, has launched a new project that provides…

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Analyzing electronic health records can be a fast and accurate way to predict risk of death from COVID-19

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Hossein Estiri, PhD, is lead author on a study that utilized artificial intelligence to leverage the data compiled in electronic health records to compute individual-level risk scores for death after a COVID-19 infection. Among those predictors at the top of the list for those between the ages of 45-65 were age, history of pneumonia, diabetes (with complications), and cancer (breast and prostate). Learn more about the findings of this study…

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Study aims to advance prevention of HIV/AIDS among young women in low- and middle-income countries

Head shot of Chunling Lu and Subu Subramanian

Two researchers affiliated with the Harvard Pop Center (Chungling Lu, PhD, and S V Subramanian, PhD) and their colleagues assessed levels of knowledge of HIV/AIDS and associated socioeconomic disparities among young women between the ages of 15-24 using Demographic Health Surveys from 51 low- and middle-income countries completed between 2002–2018.  Their findings, published in JAMA Network Open, point to there being a need to increase knowledge of HIV/AIDS across this…

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Sara Bleich named as senior advisor for COVID-19 in the Office of the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)

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Harvard Pop Center faculty member Sara Bleich, a researcher committed to providing evidence to help shape and drive policies aimed at preventing obesity and diet-related diseases, will now serve as part of the Biden-Harris administration. Learn more about her staff appointment with the USDA. Congratulations, Dr. Bleich!

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Claudia Goldin is first woman to receive Nemmers Prize in Economics

Claudia Goldin standing in front of Abstract Art

Harvard Pop Center faculty member Claudia Goldin, PhD, has been awarded the 2020 Nemmers Prize in Economics by Northwestern University. Dr. Goldin was selected to receive this prize “for her groundbreaking insights into the history of the American economy, the evolution of gender roles and the interplay of technology, human capital and labor markets.” Congratulations, Professor Goldin!

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Today.com reports: “Women who work for pay have slower memory loss as they age”

Woman over age 60, thanks to Pixabay

A study with former postdoctoral fellow Erika Sabbath, ScD, and Harvard Pop Center Director Lisa Berkman, PhD (on sabbatical 2020-2021) among the authors reports that women who worked for pay during early adulthood and later in life (even if they left the workforce to raise children but later returned) have slower rates of memory decline after age 60. Read about the findings in this piece on Today.com.

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Interdisciplinary research lab release first COVID-19 live tracker for U.S. congressional districts

COVID-19 Live Tracker portal

Researchers at the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, Harvard Center for Geographic Analysis at the Institute for Quantitative Social Science, and Microsoft AI for Health have joined forces to create a COVID-19 live tracker that monitors the current status of COVID-19 cases and deaths, as well as the reduction of new cases in U.S. congressional districts. Geographic Insights is an interdisciplinary research lab that is the first to…

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Estimating COVID-19 across Parliamentary Constituencies and districts in India could facilitate better, evidence-based policy decisions

Map of India geopolitical units with title of working paper

This Harvard Pop Center Working Paper presents the first estimates of COVID-19 cumulative cases and deaths per 100,000 population, and the case fatality rate (CFR) from January 7 – October 18, 2020 across 543 geopolitical units (Parliamentary Constituencies) and 721 districts of India.

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Media briefing on link between workplace exposures and spread of COVID-19 features Nancy Krieger and data from Harvard Pop Center Working Paper

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Join the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (National COSH) for a media briefing on Thursday, November 19 at 3:00 PM EST. Nancy Krieger will present data from a recent paper that originated as a Harvard Pop Center Working Paper that shows a link between worker complaints to OSHA about unsafe exposures to COVID-19 and a rise in deaths in the surrounding community.