Nicole Maestas, PhD, is lead author on a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine that reports some potentially hopeful news regarding the national opioid crisis: the first-time prescription rate is lower, as is the rate for prescriptions lasting longer than three days. Learn more in this piece on PBS NewsHour.
Findings of a study involving Hurricane Katrina survivors suggest that post-traumatic growth (PTG) was evident in five different key areas for most of the low-income survivors that participated in the study. Mary Waters, PhD, and other RISK project researchers found that factors such as racially diverse communities, improved neighborhoods, and new educational and economic opportunities were credited with facilitating this growth.
Alabama Senator Andrew Jones (R-Centre) put forward an opioid education bill — the Patient Opiate Risk Education Act — that would require medical practitioners to educate patients about the addiction and health risks involved with prescription opioids. Senator Jones cited the findings of a recent study by recent Harvard Pop Center postdoctoral researcher Lyndsey Rolheiser, PhD, faculty member Subu Subramanian, PhD, and a colleague that identified his congressional district as…
Rockli Kim, ScD, and S V Subramanian, PhD, are among the authors of a study published in Social Science & Medicine that furthers recent insights on the value of focusing on parliamentary constituencies to hone in on areas experiencing the greatest burden of child malnutrition indicators. Learn more in this Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health news item.
Recent Harvard Bell Fellow Nikkil Sudharsanan, PhD, and a colleague have authored a paper published in the journal Hypertension that estimates that by 2050 demographic changes alone will increase the number of adults in Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico and South Africa who will be in need of hypertension care by 319.7 million.
Collin F. Payne, PhD, a fellow in a recent cohort of our Bell Postdoctoral Fellows, is an author on a paper published in BMC Medicine that examines both life expectancy and disability-free life expectancy among those cohorts born 1919–1928 and 1909–1918 in China. The findings could be instrumental in helping shape policy and programs in this country, which is one of the most rapidly aging societies in the world. Photo: Rod…
Harvard Bell Fellow Adel Daoud, PhD, is an author on a study that has leveraged a machine-learning approach—Bayesian Additive Regression Trees (BART)—that confirms and refines earlier findings that maternal education decreases severe child undernutrition, even in an armed conflict environment.
A study by Harvard Pop Center research associate Rockli Kim, ScD, and faculty member S (Subu) V Subramanian, PhD, and colleagues, that applies two newly developed geographic information systems methodologies to analyze the 543 parliamentary constituencies in India has been published in Economic & Political Weekly. The results highlight several constituencies experiencing an increased malnutrition burden and in need of priority attention. Learn more about the findings in the news: Downtoearth.com…
A new study published in the BMJ Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health examined the long-term health impacts of a policy enacted in France that extended compulsory education by two years. Lead author Emilie Courtin, PhD, a current Harvard Bell Fellow, along with Harvard Pop Center Director Lisa Berkman, and faculty members Mauricio Avendano and Maria Glymour and other colleagues, found that while the reform was linked to improved cognitive…
Three studies by researchers affiliated with Longitudinal Study of an INDEPTH Community in South Africa (HAALSI) have been published this month shedding light on the status of cognitive function, the level of daily living limitations and unmet care needs, and the impact of multiple illnesses on the likelihood of progressing along the recommended “continuum of care” among those aging in South Africa. Read the abstracts and learn more…