A first look at the emergence of chronic multimorbidity, including HIV, among aging population in South Africa

Older man in South Africa sitting in a field

Partly due to the advancement of antiretroviral therapy (ART), South Africa is now among those countries whose population is living longer. Along with this blessing often goes the complex burden of managing multimorbidities such as cardiometabolic conditions, mental disorders, HIV and/or anaemia. A study by researchers affiliated with Health and Aging in Africa: A Longitudinal Study of an INDEPTH Community in South Africa (HAALSI) is one of the first to…

Untangling depression and anxiety using hair samples in India

Indian woman

Harvard Pop Center Director Lisa Berkman, PhD, and her colleagues have published a study that has found a connection between higher levels of the sex hormone dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) and lower levels of depression when analyzing hair samples of over 2,000 women in rural India. Learn more about how other sex hormones, such as testosterone and progesterone, may factor into depressive and anxiety disorders. Other authors include: Andreas Walther, C. Tsao,…

A population-level look at subjective well-being after the 2014 Affordable Care Act Medicaid expansion

Headshots of Lindsay, Onur, Yulya, and Lisa

Researchers affiliated with the Harvard Pop Center, including Director Lisa Berkman, have published a study that looks at the impact of the Medicaid expansion on subjective well-being among low-income and general adult U.S. populations. Self-perceived measures of happiness, sadness, worry, stress, and life satisfaction did not appear to be impacted by the increased access to healthcare among the low-income sector or by a spill-over effect in the general population. The…

Community-based screening may help to raise awareness and control hypertension among aging adults in China

Group of 3 elderly people

Recent Harvard Bell Fellow Nikkil Sudharsanan, along with faculty member Till Bärnighausen and their colleagues, have published a study that shows an association between the intervention and lower systolic blood pressure in an adult population in which nearly half (many, unknowingly) are at risk for hypertension, a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease.

Riding the bus to better cognitive function

Green bus and a black car driving on a street

Findings from a study authored by Harvard Pop Center Bell Fellow Emilie Courtin, faculty member Mauricio Avendano, and colleagues reveal that making public transportation more accessible to older adults (by way of a free bus pass) did more than just boost ridership; it also increased their cognitive functioning, perhaps by facilitating a more socially and physically active lifestyle.

A first look at how HIV-positive, aging adults living in rural South Africa are doing in treatment cascade

A doctor drawing blood from a woman

Aging, HIV-positive adults in South Africa are a growing segment of the population. A study by HAALSI researchers, including project director and lead author, Julia Rohr, PhD, takes a first look at how this understudied population is progressing along the care continuum known as an HIV treatment cascade (a popular, step-by-step model of care that tracks an patient starting with initial diagnosis all the way to the achievement of viral…

Nutrition-specific interventions may not be best way to prevent stunting in India

image of an Indian woman and a small child

Child anthropometric failures — such as stunting, underweight, and wasting — were found to be more closely linked with past and current socioeconomic conditions, such as mother’s stature, BMI and education, and household wealth and air quality, than diversity of diet, Vitamin A supplementation and breastfeeding initiation. The study by Harvard Pop Center research associate Rockli Kim, faculty member S V Subramanian, and former Bell Fellow Daniel Corsi, and their…

Adult cancer survivors found to have better memory function both before and after cancer diagnosis

two elderly people standing together in a park

The findings of this new study published in JAMA Network Open could make a valuable contribution in the quest to prevent Alzheimer’s as it could lead to insight into a common pathological process in the illnesses. Authors include Harvard Pop Center faculty member M. Maria Glymour and recent Bell Fellow Lindsay Kobayashi. Other authors of the study are: Monica Ospina-Romer, Ekland Abdiwahab, Teresa Filshtein, Willa D. Brenowitz, and Elizabeth R.…

Affirmative action bans linked to increased smoking among minority students in their teens (and beyond)

lit cigarette

Affirmative action bans may do more damage to minority students than just negatively impact their educational and socioeconomic opportunities; a study has linked these bans with an increase in health risk behaviors, such as smoking, among those in the 11th and 12th grade. Authors include Harvard RWJF Health & Society Scholars program alumni Rourke O’Brien and Alexander Tsai (who is also a Harvard Pop Center faculty member) as well as…