A study published in npj Digital Medicine by faculty member Ashish K. Jha, MD, and colleagues (including Google researchers) has found that a machine-learned model can help identify a food safety breach at a restaurant or health department more quickly, before it poses a bigger public health risk. Learn more in this EurekAlert.
India’s gender gap in mobile phone usage is fourth highest in world
According to a new Harvard Kennedy School study—with Harvard Pop Center faculty member Rohini Pande and recent Harvard Bell Fellow Natalia Rigol among its authors—men in India are 33 percentage points more likely than women to own a cell phone, on average. Learn how this imbalance can influence other forms of inequalities in this news piece on counterview.com.
Mourning the loss of sociologist Devah Pager
We are very saddened at the Harvard Pop Center to learn of the passing of Harvard sociologist Devah Pager. The Harvard Gazette pays tribute to this academic ‘force of nature’ who passed away last Friday.
Sudharsanan and Bloom share insights into demography of aging in LMICs in new guidebook
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine has produced a guide (based on papers that were presented at a public workshop in 2017) to demography of aging research trends and future directions. Harvard Bell Fellow Nikkil Sudharsanan, PhD, and faculty member David E. Bloom, PhD, have contributed a chapter that more closely examines the expected boom in population in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), weighing the impact of both…
Is childhood weight linked to early exposure to antibiotics?
A study in Pediatrics contributes to the evidence that links early exposure to antibiotics with higher body weight in five-year old children. Lead author of the study is Jason Block, MD, a Harvard Pop Center faculty member and former Harvard RWJF Health & Society Scholar. Learn more in this news item.
Does exposure to trauma explain lower rates of psychopathology among racial, ethnic minorities in the United States?
David R. Williams, a Harvard Pop Center faculty member, collaborated with a Harvard RWJF Health & Society Scholar program alumna and current Harvard faculty member Katie McLaughlin and colleagues in this study to shed light on whether exposure to trauma might be partly at play in explaining why racial and ethnic minorities have lower rates of psychopathology in the U.S.
Harvard Pop Center awarded grant by NIA to further research on Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias among older adults in rural South Africa
The National Institute on Aging (NIA) has awarded the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies (HCPDS) a five-year grant to further its research on a rapidly growing, under-studied, at-risk population—older adults in rural South Africa— by honing in on the social and biological risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD). The Cognitive Function, Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders in the HAALSI Cohort study is a collaboration with Witwatersrand…
A look at alcohol use among youth taking alcohol-interactive medications
Elissa Weitzman, ScD, Harvard Pop Center faculty member and associate professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, is an author on a study that found that youth with chronic medical conditions who take medications that can interact negatively with alcohol (AI medications) were less likely to consume alcohol than their peers not taking AI medications. The study suggests that interventions aimed at increasing awareness of the risks of consuming alcohol…
Continue reading “A look at alcohol use among youth taking alcohol-interactive medications”
What may help you get enough fruit and vegetables into your regular diet?
Laura Kubzansky, PhD, is an author on a study that indicates that higher levels of psychological well-being are associated with maintaining higher levels of health-promoting fruit and vegetable consumption.
A 21st-century-approach to qualitative data analysis
Mary Waters has co-authored a research article in Sociological Methods & Research that challenges the status-quo method (grounded theory framework) for qualitative coding procedures. The researchers suggest a way to better leverage today’s software, designed to support rigorous, transparent, and flexible analysis of in-depth interview data.