Mauricio Avendano is an author on a paper that shows that while there was no association between a mother’s unemployment and the purchases of pscyhotropic medication by her offspring, there was a significant increase in these purchases among adolescents whose fathers were unemployed.
Use of randomized control trials (RCTs) in social interventions not without challenges, but still valuable
Harvard Pop Center Director Lisa Berkman has authored a study published in European Journal of Public Health that finds that while RCTs can pose challenges for both social and biomedical interventions alike, they still can serve as a helpful way to identify causal relationships.
Why is U.S. infant mortality rate among full-term births as high as it is?
Harvard Pop Center Research Analyst Neha Bairoliya, PhD, is co-author of a study published in PLOS Medicine that finds that many of the over 7,000 full-term infant deaths a year in the U.S. could be prevented. Learn more in this Reuters piece.
Why is U.S. healthcare spending so high? How does it really stack up to other high-income countries?
Faculty member Ashish, Jha, MD, is author and lead researcher on a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) that takes a “careful and more comprehensive” look at the U.S. healthcare system. Learn about the somewhat surprising results of the study in this piece in The New York Times.
How do welfare state efforts and immigration incorporation policies impact minority health inequalities in Europe?
Harvard Pop Center Associate Director Jason Beckfield is an author on a paper published in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior that finds that policies aimed at protecting minorities from discrimination across European countries correlate with smaller relative health inequalities.
Small but significant health impacts of cash transfers to elderly in Colombia
Former Harvard Bell Fellow Philipp Hessel, PhD, and current faculty member Mauricio Avendano, PhD, are authors on a paper in Health Affairs that has found that male recipients of small cash transfers were less likely to report bad health and to be hospitalized. Learn more in this release.
Recalibrating socio-ecological inquiry by recognizing dynamic interplay between scarcity, abundance and sufficiency
A study by Harvard Bell Fellow Adel Daoud, PhD, suggests that the benefits of socio-ecological inquiry could be expanded by better understanding the dynamic relationship between scarcity, abundance and sufficiency, as opposed to seeing them as distinct branches of inquiry.
Can a good marriage help fight the battle of the (midlife) bulge?
Researchers have found that those who feel supported in their marriages were more likely to be at a healthier weight in the midlife years. Harvard Pop Center Director Lisa Berkman, and faculty members Ichiro Kawachi and Laura Kubzansky are authors on the study published in Health Psychology.
Latin American migrants in Spain: Assessing impact of economic expansion and recession on head of household status
There tends to be an increase in male migration into Spain during times of economic expansion, and during recessions, there is a rise in women as head of households. A study co-authored by Xiana Bueno, PhD, a sociologist and the Marie Skłodowska Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University, closely examines the nature of these demographic characteristics.
Focusing on the “pros” of occupational licensing
Sloan Fellow on Aging and Work Kyle Albert, PhD, is an author on a study that hones in on tax preparers in the U.S. to shed light on whether licensing is viewed more negatively (due to compliance and regulatory costs) or seen in a positive light (legitimizing).