A Harvard Pop Center working paper by faculty member Mauricio Avendano and his colleagues reveals that increasing the age at which women working in routine-manual occupations in the UK received pension benefits negatively impacted their health, and contributed to the widening of the health gap between women of different occupations.
Harvard Pop Center Working Paper: What kind of impact did 3 million refugees have on businesses and the informal economy?
According to a working paper authored by recent Harvard Bell Fellow Onur Altindag and his colleagues, the Syrians refugees that flowed into Turkey had a positive impact on its informal economy, particularly on smaller firms and those in the construction and hospitality industries.
What impact did the Zika virus have on birth rate in Brazil?
Faculty member Marcia Castro is author on a study published in PNAS that finds that there was a significant decline in births in Brazil after the onset of the Zika virus.
Study points to marked increase in marketing of sugar-sweetened beverages in grocery stores when food stamps are dispersed
Faculty member S V Subramanian, PhD, and former RWJF Health & Society Scholar Christina Roberto, are among the authors of a study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine that has received coverage in The Washington Post.
State laws permitting denial of services to same-sex couples linked to significant increase in mental distress among sexual minority adults
S. Bryn Austin, ScD, is an author on a paper published in JAMA Psychiatry that has found that state laws permitting the denial of services to sexual minorities (currently, 12 states have such laws) was associated with a 46% increase in the proportion of sexual minority (defined as gay, lesbian, bisexual, or not sure of their sexual orientation) adults experiencing mental distress.
Long-term effects on sleep of older natural disaster victims
Ichiro Kawachi, MD, PhD, and Orfeu Buxton, PhD, are authors on a study that evaluated the sleep of those aged 65 and older who were impacted by the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami. Two and a half years after the event, those who experienced material loss, such as financial and home, were still at greater risk of sleep problems.
How can we safeguard health despite deregulation of federal food policies?
Sara Bleich, PhD, has penned a discussion in Preventive Medicine that outlines some of the recent changes made to nutritional policies as a result of deregulation efforts by the current federal administration. She emphasizes the important role that state governments and public health departments can and should play in implementing nutritional policies to safeguard people’s health.
Education interrupted: Impacts of family disruption on children’s educational attainment
Recent Bell Fellow Juli Simon Thomas, PhD, has authored a paper that confirms that disruptive events within a family, such as parental loss/gain of job/partner lowered the chances of their children completing high school, attending college and finishing college, and more significantly contributes new insight into the increased negative effects of multiple events within a 2-year period.
A deeper look at complex nature of loneliness and social isolation among aging Americans
Recent Bell Fellow Lindsay Kobayashi, PhD, is co-author on this paper that finds that not all older, independent people who are socially isolated feel lonely, and that poor health can have both negative and positive effects on perception of social isolation.
What is driving optimism’s association with reduced risk for cardiovascular disease?
Laura Kubzansky, a Harvard Pop Center faculty member and co-director of the Lee Kum Sheung Center for Health and Happiness, is an author on a paper that analyzes the relationship between optimism and healthy behaviors, such as exercising, eating fruits and vegetables, and not smoking cigarettes; is it that optimistic people engage in healthier behaviors and that is what is reducing their risk for cardiovascular disease and related mortality?