Social and Environmental Determinants of Population Health

Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies

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Social and Environmental Determinants of Population Health

Social and environmental conditions shape patterns of population health across the world. While diseases are influenced by a number of specific risk factors and agents, socioeconomically disadvantaged men and women and those who are socially excluded from full participation in their societies are almost without exception at increased risk for whatever diseases are prevalent in their society. Thus, while specific disease agents and risk factors come and go, the social and physical environment shapes both the distribution of risks as well as susceptibility and resilience to risk. Identification of these environmental conditions in both industrialized and developing countries and understanding the ways in which they become biologically embedded is a central aim of this theme. Poverty, economic inequality, social isolation and exclusion and job stress along with environmental conditions related to pollution, unsanitary living conditions and poor nutrition shape health in ways that the health care system will be hard pressed to fix. The Harvard Population Center is fortunate to have a number of epidemiologists and economists as well as physicians and other social scientists who can work together to explore issues that are often bound by distinct disciplinary approaches. In an area in which scientists often contest the methods and results of scientists in other fields, we are very fortunate to have a long history of collaboration across disciplines.

Current projects (listed in alpha order by PI):

Project Title: Abuse of Over-the-Counter Products for Weight Control by Youth: A Pilot Study of Product Sales, Medical Claims, and Viable Legal Responses to Protect the Health of Young People
PI: S. Bryn Austin, ScD, Director of Fellowship Research Training, Division of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine, Children’s Hospital Boston; Assistant Professor in Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School; and Assistant Professor in Society, Human Development and Health, Harvard School of Public Health.
Funder: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health & Society Scholars Program at Harvard
Summary: This research will launch an innovative, multidisciplinary pilot investigation into the sale of OTC products abused for weight control in the United States, the health consequences of the widespread sale and abuse of these products, and the viable legal responses available to government to address this critical public health issue.

Project Title: The Comparative Political Economy of Health Inequities, 1960-2005
PI: Jason Beckfield, PhD, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Harvard
Funder: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health and Society Scholars Program at Harvard
Summary: This study will utilize census and mortality registry data from Western European countries and the U.S. to generate country-specific trend data on socioeconomic inequalities in multiple measures of mortality and morbidity.

Project Title: Social Protection, Work and Family Strain: Cumulative Disadvantage Effects in the US and Europe
PI: Lisa Berkman, PhD, Thomas Cabot Professor of Public Policy and Epidemiology, and Director, Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, HSPH
Funder: NIH
Summary: Project aims are: 1) describe the distribution of work-family strain for females born 1920-1960 in the US and EU; 2) assess the differential toxicity of work-family strain on CVD risk behaviors and biomarkers, incidence of stroke and heart disease, CVD mortality, and life expectancy in the US and Europe; 3) assess whether distributions of the toxicity of work-family strain explain geographic and temporal variations in CVD and life expectancy, and 4) assess impacts of trends in work-family strain on socioeconomic inequalities in mortality in the US and Europe

Project Title:Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health & Society Scholars Program
PI(s): Lisa Berkman, PhD, Thomas Cabot Professor of Public Policy and Epidemiology, and Director, Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, HSPH; and Ichiro Kawachi, MD, PhD, Chair, Department of Society, Human Development and Health, HSPH
Funder: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Summary: To train scholars in the social determinants of health through a tightly knit, interdisciplinary training program integrating social, behavioral and biological sciences with a rich historical perspective.

Project Title: Does Posting Calories on Fast-Food Restaurant Menus Influence Adolescents? An Analysis of a New Massachusetts Regulation
PI: Jason Block, MD, Instructor, Department of Population Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Funder: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health and Society Scholars Program at Harvard
Summary: This research proposes to collect baseline data about nutrition knowledge, awareness and choices of adolescents at fast-food restaurants near schools before Massachusetts requires fast-food and full-service chain restaurants post calorie counts on menus (Nov 2010). This data will be used as part of an evaluation of the regulation to assess calorie-labeling awareness and whether knowledge of caloric content and calorie labeling alters caloric consumption. Block.Final Report.Fast Food.

Project Title: Feeling Blue: Neighborhood Context and Mental Health Outcomes among Second-Generation Youths
PI: Rocio Calvo, PhD, David E. Bell Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard School of Public Health
Funder: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health and Society Scholars Program at Harvard
Summary: This study will explore how neighborhood contexts shape mental health outcomes among the post-1965 second-generation.

Project Title: Measuring Racial Disparities in Ambulatory Care
PI: Amitabh Chandra, PhD, Professor of Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School of Government
Funder: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health and Society Scholars Program at Harvard
Summary: This study is measuring and reporting quality and disparities in ambulatory diabetes care among providers serving the black Medicare FFS population.

Project Title: Geographic Variation in Cardiovascular Risk Markers among Women
PI: Cheryl R. Clark, MD, MS, ScD., Instructor, Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Funder: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health and Society Scholars Program at Harvard
Summary: This study is investigating whether there are spatial patterns of inflammatory biomarkers at the metropolitan area level among women in the Women’s Health Study. Specifically, the geographic patterns of inflammation at the neighborhood and regional levels are being explored.

Project Title: Depression among Mothers: A Social and Cross-cultural Examination
PI: Karen Ertel, PhD., Kellogg Health Scholar, Harvard School of Public Health
Funder: Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies
Summary: This research will 1) examine social and cultural causes of depression among mothers and 2) rigorously assess the physical health effects of perinatal depression on children. In order to gain traction on these difficult questions and to understand how the larger social and environmental context may alter causal relationships, cross-cultural comparisons between the United States, the Netherlands, and Australia will be made.

Project Title: Assessing the Social Resistance Framework for Understanding High-Risk Behavior among Non-Dominant Minorities
PI: Roni Factor, PhD, Takemi Fellow
Funder: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health and Society Scholars Program at Harvard
Summary: The proposed study deals with an innovative multidisciplinary social resistance framework for understanding high-risk behavior among non-dominant minorities. The aims of the study are (1) to construct an instrument for testing the framework; (2) to psychometrically evaluate the instrument; and (3) to conduct a preliminary test of the framework’s core hypotheses.

Project Title: Evaluating the Effects of Large Scale Health Interventions in Developing Countries: The Zambian Malaria Initiative
PI(s): Gunther Fink, PhD, Assistant Professor of International Health Economics, Department of Global Health and Population, HSPH, and Nava Ashraf, PhD, Associate Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School
Funder: NBER Africa Project
Summary: We investigate the degree to which these improvements in health have improved other aspects of the real economy. Does better health lead to higher productivity? Does it increase school enrollment?

Project Title: The Effects of Social and Individual Determinants in the Impact of Message Interaction on Decisions about Influenza Vaccination
PI: Ezequiel M. Galarce, PhD
Funder: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health & Society Scholars Program at Harvard
Summary: The primary aims of this study are to: (a) to examine the association between social and individual determinants with attitudes and intentions about influenza vaccination among a nationally representative population of American adults; (b) to examine the effects of social and individual determinants in the impact of message priming on attitudes and intentions towards influenza vaccination; (c) to examine post-priming vaccination behavior.

Project Title: The Health of Black Immigrants in the United States: The Relative Importance of Country of Origin, Cohort of Arrival, Assimilation, and Selective Migration.
PI: Tod Hamilton, PhD, Kellogg Fellow
Funder: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health and Society Scholars Program at Harvard
Summary: Utilizing data from the March Current Population Survey (CPS), National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), and the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) Human Development Reports, the research objectives of the project are to: 1) evaluate the health profiles of black immigrants within the United States, 2) explore how country of origin factors impact the health of black immigrants, and 3) examine the degree of health selection among black immigrants in the U.S.

Project Title: The Effect of Air Pollution on Labor Supply
PI(s): Rema N. Hanna, PhD, Assistant Professor of Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School and Paulina B. Oliva, PhD, Assistant Professor of Economics, University of California, Santa Barbara
Funder: Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies
Summary: This study will explore the impact of changes in air quality in Mexico City on worker absences due to ill health.

Project Title: The impact of policy changes on maternal health behaviors and infant outcomes
PI: Summer Hawkins, PhD, RWJF Health and Society Scholar
Funder: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health & Society Scholars Program at Harvard
Summary: This work will examine the associations between changes in cigarette excise taxes and smoke-free legislation on changes in maternal smoking behaviors before, during, and after pregnancy as well as infant birthweight and smoke exposure during the first few months of life.

Project Title: Early determinants of childhood obesity: Etiology, disparities and policy analysis
PI: Summer Hawkins, PhD, Research Associate
Funder: NIH
Summary: To clarify peri- and post-natal risk factors for disparities in childhood obesity and to examine the effects of policies on disparities in these risk factors.

Project Title: Examining the multiple layers of influence on disparities in breastfeeding
PI(s): Summer Sherburne Hawkins, PhD, RWJF Health & Society Scholar, and Emily Shafer (Co-PI), PhD, RWJF Health & Society Scholar
Funder: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health and Society Scholars Program at Harvard
Summary: We propose to examine the multiple layers of influence (hospital policies and practices, workplace and employment factors, and community-level factors ) on breastfeeding initiation and duration from both epidemiological and sociological perspectives.

Project Title: Health, poverty and place: urban health through RS and GIS
PI(s): Dr. John Weeks, Professor of Demography, San Diego State University and Allan Hill, PhD, Andelot Professor of Demography, Global Health and Development, Harvard School of Public Health
Funder: NIH/NICHD
Summary: This project, through a detailed analysis of spatial disparities in health in Accra, Ghana, aims to provide a model for the interpretation of urban health inequalities in cities in poor countries.

Project Title: Reproductive and overall health outcomes and their economic consequences for households in Accra, Ghana
PI: Allan Hill, PhD, Andelot Professor of Demography, Harvard School of Public Health
Funder: Hewlett/PRB Global Teams of Research Excellence
Summary: This project, building on existing detailed survey work on households in Accra, will obtain new empirical information on the links between health and wealth on the household level.

Project Title: The Long Shadow of Early Geography
PI: Jennifer Jennings, PhD, RWJ Health & Society Scholar, Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, and Assistant Professor of Sociology, NYU (on leave 2009-2011)
Funder: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health and Society Scholars Program at Harvard
Summary: This research builds on earlier findings and seeks to determine to what extent early geography affects adult morbidity; to what extent does early geography explain racial disparities in adult morbidity; and through what mechanisms do the effects of early geography operate. Final Report.

Project Title: The Effects of Neighborhood Violent Crime on Health Disparities
PI(s): Jennifer Jennings, PhD, RWJF Health & Society Scholar, and Andrew Papachristos, PhD, RWJF Health and Society Scholar
Funder: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health and Society Scholars Program at Harvard
Summary: Using patient-level and crime data, this study seeks to examin the effects of exposure to violent crime on health. Specifically, this study will test the hypothesis that proximate homicides increase hospital admissions for conditions that are aggravated by stress as well as attempt to unpack the pathways through which homicides affect health.

Project Title: Neighborhood Contextual Effects on Risks of Major Chronic Health Conditions and All-Cause Mortality: A Quasi-Experimental Study
PI: Daniel Kim, PhD, Research Associate, Harvard School of Public Health
Funder: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health & Society Scholars Program at Harvard
Summary: This study will use random variation in neighborhood of residence generated by public housing waiting list lotteries to substantially attenuate the selection bias that potentially plagues observational studies of the impact of neighborhoods on health.

Project Title: Genotype by Social Environment Interactions as Predictors of Disparities in Trauma-Related Outcomes in Hurricane Katrina
PI: Karestan C. Koenen, PhD, Associate Professor, Departments of Society, Human Development and Health and Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health
Funder: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health and Society Scholars Program at Harvard
Summary: This study builds on an ongoing investigation of low-income, minority survivors of Hurricane Katrina. Data on survivors’ genetic factors (extracted from buccal cells) are expected to lead to a more comprehensive understanding of risk and resilience in the face of this large-scale natural disaster.

Project Title: The Biology of Resilience: Social Relationships, Oxytocin, and Health
PI: Laura D. Kubzansky, PhD, MPH, Associate Professor, Department of Society, Human Development, and Health, Harvard School of Public Health, Health and Society Scholars Program at Harvard
Funder: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Summary: The aim of this study is to assess the feasibility of techniques and methods for examining the effects of intranasal oxytocin in human subjects in comparison with social support on stress-related outcomes.

Project Title: A comparative assessment of the impact of early adversity on mental and physical health across the lifespan
PI: Laura D. Kubzansky, PhD, MPH, Associate Professor, Department of Society, Human Development, and Health, Harvard School of Public Health
Funder: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health and Society Scholars Program at Harvard
Summary: This experimental research will look at effects of intranasal oxytocin and stress on neuroendocrine, cardiovascular, and subjective outcomes and examine trends in the data to test the hypothesis that oxytocin ameliorates the deleterious neuroendocrine, cardiovascular, and subjective effects of stress.

Project Title: Social Gradient in the Use of Iodized Salt in India
PI: Santosh Kumar, PhD, David E. Bell Research Fellow, Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies
Funder: Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies
Summary: Iodine deficiency is one of the most common preventable causes of mental retardation in the world today. While there have been no experimental or large-scale observational studies of the cognitive effects of moderate iodine deficiency in humans, there is suggestive but mixed evidence from community-based assessments of iodine intervention trials that supplementation can improve performance on cognitive tests. This project will examine the impact of a pilot program that will deliver iodized salt/oil in the primary schools in rural India.

Project Title: Quantifying the short and long-term health effects of school and social network characteristics on school-age individuals in the US
PI: Sze Yan Liu, PhD, Kellogg Health Scholar, Department of Society, Human Development and Health
Funder: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health & Society Scholars Program at Harvard
Summary: This study will investigate the specific features of schools that not only influence both the short and long-term health of individuals but may also impact communities in which they are located.

Project Title: Measuring the Impact of Global Health Aid on Child Mortality in Low and Lower-Middle Income Countries— A Cross-Country Quantitative Analysis
PI: Chunling Lu, PhD, Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and in Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School
Funder: Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies
Summary: The overall goal of the study is to examine the causal relationship between global health aid and child health by developing an evaluation model using time-series, cross-country data from 1995 to 2009. More specifically, we will investigate three major research questions: (1) Does total global health aid have an effect on reducing child mortality? (2) Are the programs that target child health effective in reducing child mortality? (3) What is the effect of the non-child health-targeted programs on child mortality?

Project Title: Early life risk factors for PTSD onset and associated long-term health consequences
PI: Katie McLaughlin, PhD, Instructor, Department of Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical School
Funder: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health & Society Scholars Program at Harvard
Summary: This research seeks to identify psychological characteristics and aspects of the childhood and adolescent social environment that increase risk of developing PTSD given exposure to trauma, and to determine whether PTSD increases risk for cardiovascular disease in later life independent of known risk factors.

Project Title: Developmental epidemiology of adverse health outcomes in sexual minority youth
PI: Katie McLaughlin, PhD, Instructor, Department of Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical School
Funder: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health & Society Scholars Program at Harvard
Summary: This research examines whether structural stressors are associated with adverse mental health outcomes (anxiety, depression) and health risk behaviors (substance use, risky sexual behaviors) among LGB youths.

Project Title: Childhood origins of health disparities: Stress exposure, stress reactivity and psychopathology
PI: Katie McLaughlin, PhD, Instructor, Department of Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical School
Funder: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health & Society Scholars Program at Harvard
Summary: This research will examine the associations between childhood socioeconomic disadvantage and cumulative exposure to chronic and traumatic stressors in adolescents.

Project Title: The Population Health Sequelae of the U.S. Financial Crisis
PI: Arijit Nandi, PhD, Assistant Professor of Public Policy, McGill University
Funder: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health & Society Scholars Program at Harvard
Summary: This study will investigate the impact of the current financial crisis on population health and health inequities.

Project Title: Whole-genome methylation analysis of fetal exposure to maternal depression/anxiety
PI: Amy L. Non, MPH, PhD, RWJF Health & Society Scholar
Funder: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health & Society Scholars Program at Harvard
Summary: We propose a study to test for differences in patterns of genome-wide methylation and biomarkers of inflammation and oxidative stress, resulting from exposure to maternal depression and antidepressant use during pregnancy.

Project Title: Epigenetic effects of maternal stress during pregnancy
PI: Amy L. Non, MPH, PhD, RWJF Health & Society Scholar
Funder: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health & Society Scholars Program at Harvard
Summary: We propose a study to test the overall hypothesis that intrauterine stress leads to epigenetic changes at stress-signaling genes, such as those that are involved in the expression of placental CRH.

Project Title: The Diffusion of Gun Violence in High-Risk Social Networks
PI : Andrew V. Papachristos, PhD, RWJF Health & Society Scholar
Funder: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health & Society Scholars Program at Harvard
Summary: The proposed study—in particular the population based approach and the large number of networks within the study communities—represents a significant advancement of (1) the study of gunshot injury as well as (2) the more general study of the effect of social networks on public health.

Project Title: Mineralocorticoid Receptor: A link between stress and cardiovascular injury
PI: Ajay D Rao, MD, Clinical Research Fellow, Harvard Medical School
Funder: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health & Society Scholars Program at Harvard
Summary: Increased psychosocial stress and low socioeconomic status are potent risk factors for cardiovascular disease, but the physiological bases for these relationships remain uncertain. This project explores whether aldosterone and activation of the aldosterone receptor, generally referred to as the mineralocorticoid receptor (MR), is a key factor mediating the link between stress and cardiovascular disease.

Project Title: Assessing the determinants of heat-related mortality in two New York City (Bronx) neighborhoods
PI: Joyce Klein Rosenthal, Assistant Professor of Urban Planning, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University
Funder: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health and Society Scholars Program at Harvard
Summary: The main goal of this research is to explore and consider, through mixed methods, the relationship between urban design and built environment characteristics and the risk of heat-associated mortality in two adjacent Bronx neighborhoods, chosen because they have widely differing rates of natural cause mortality during 1997- 2006 extreme heat event days, despite similar demographic and socio-economic characteristics and history.

Project Title: Examining effects of employment on women’s health
PI: Emily Shafer, PhD, RWJF Health and Society Scholar
Funder: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health and Society Scholars Program at Harvard
Summary: This project proposes that the unique situation of women in the United States – their relatively high employment, high birth rates and very little social support – may put them at a relative disadvantage. Specifically, it will investigate the effect of returning to employment on women’s health within the first year post-partum, whether these effects vary by educational attainment or occupation and the mechanisms through which they operate as well as whether the year immediately post partum is unique to the effects of women’s employment and on health.

Project Title: Assessing the determinants of heat-related mortality in two New York City (Bronx) neighborhoods
PI: Joyce Klein Rosenthal, Assistant Professor of Urban Planning, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University
Funder: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health & Society Scholars Program at Harvard
Summary: The main goal of this research is to explore and consider, through mixed methods, the relationship between urban design and built environment characteristics and the risk of heat-associated mortality in two adjacent Bronx neighborhoods, chosen because they have widely differing rates of natural cause mortality during 1997- 2006 extreme heat event days, despite similar demographic and socio-economic characteristics and history.

Project Title: Examining effects of employment on women’s health
PI: Emily Shafer, PhD, RWJF Health & Society Scholar
Funder: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health and Society Scholars Program at Harvard
Summary: This project proposes that the unique situation of women in the United States – their relatively high employment, high birth rates and very little social support – may put them at a relative disadvantage. Specifically, it will investigate the effect of returning to employment on women’s health within the first year post-partum, whether these effects vary by educational attainment or occupation and the mechanisms through which they operate as well as whether the year immediately post partum is unique to the effects of women’s employment and on health.

Project Title: Initial evidence for stress as a mediator of the health gradient and related neural function in humans
PI: Margaret A. Sheridan, PhD, Instructor, Children’s Hospital Boston
Funder: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health and Society Scholars Program at Harvard
Summary: This study will provide unique insights into the relationship between socioeconomic status, stress, and neural functioning through a two step experimental design using neuroimaging, physiology, observational, and self report data from a group of children and their primary caregiver.

Project Title: Role of Mineralcorticoid Receptors in Paired Associate Learning in Humans
PI: Margaret A. Sheridan, PhD, Instructor, Children’s Hospital Boston
Funder: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health and Society Scholars Program at Harvard
Summary: This research uses an experimental sample of convenience to assess hippocampal function in humans before and after chronic blockade of the MR in the hippocampus via administration of the MR antagonist spironolactone and assess this function in a group of adults with type II diabetes who will be randomized to treatment with spironolactone, hydrochlorothiazide plus potassium, or placebo in a 6-month clinical trial to assess the effectiveness of MR blockade in regulating coronary vascular function.

Project Title: The Height of Nations
PI: S V Subramanian, PhD, Associate Professor, Society, Human Development and Health, HSPH; Emre Özaltin, PhD Candidate, Department of Global Health and Population, HSPH
Funder: Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies
Summary: The proposed study will establish and elucidate a multi-generational, life-course view of health through examination of human stature.

Project Title: Culturally Salient Social Status and Stress Reactivity
PI: Elizabeth Sweet, PhD, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health and Society Scholar
Funder: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health and Society Scholars Program at Harvard
Summary:This study investigates stress/health pathways by examining 1) how cultural norms of social status facilitate social comparisons, and 2) how these culturally mediated social comparisons are associated with physiological markers of stress.

Project Title: Linking statistical innovations with neighborhoods effects applications: a pilot project to improve the robustness of multilevel models
PI: Eric Tchetgen Tchetgen, PhD, Assistant Professor, Departments of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Harvard School of Public Health
Funder: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health & Society Scholars Program at Harvard
Summary: This project will develop and implement novel methods for making robust inferences on the parameters in a multilevel regression model for binary outcomes.

Project Title: The Impact of Education Policy on Young Adult Health Outcomes
PI(s): Sebastian Vollmer, Dr. rer. pol, Postdoctoral Fellow, Program on the Global Demography of Aging; Jennifer Jennings, PhD, RWJF Health & Society Scholar, Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, and Assistant Professor of Sociology, NYU (on leave 2009-2011)
Funder: Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies
Summary: This project exploits temporal and geographic variation in the introduction of three education policy changes in Germany to identify the effects of a) the shift in between-school tracking from age 12 to age 10, b) increases in the length of the school day, and c) a reduction in the years of secondary education required to enter college, on young adults’ mental health, fertility, and educational attainment.

Project Title: Utilizing concept mapping to explore perceptions of factors that influence food buying practices among residents of low-income neighborhoods
PI: Renee Walker, PhD, Kellogg Health Scholar and Yerby Fellow, Harvard School of Public Health
Funder: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health & Society Scholars Program at Harvard
Summary: This study will identify perceptions of factors influencing food buying practices among residents of a low-income, urban food desert and residents of a low-income, urban food oasis; understand how these factors are related; and examine how residents’ perceptions of factors influencing food buying practices differ by food security status.

Project Title: Failing Markets and Failing Health: Counterfeit and Substandard Drugs in Uganda
PI: David Yanagizawa-Drott, PhD, Assistant Professor of Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School
Funder: Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies
Summary: Using a rigorous methodology and drawing from a large sample size, this study aims to unveil the extent and prevalence of counterfeit drugs both across countries and within them. Additionally, the project seeks to determine adverse health effects of substandard drugs and how it is possible to intervene in the markets to solve the problem.

Summary: This project proposes that the unique situation of women in the United States – their relatively high employment, high birth rates and very little social support – may put them at a relative disadvantage. Specifically, it will investigate the effect of returning to employment on women’s health within the first year post-partum, whether these effects vary by educational attainment or occupation and the mechanisms through which they operate as well as whether the year immediately post partum is unique to the effects of women’s employment and on health.

Project Title: Linking statistical innovations with neighborhoods effects applications: a pilot project to improve the robustness of multilevel models
PI: Eric Tchetgen Tchetgen, PhD, Assistant Professor, Departments of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Harvard School of Public Health
Funder: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health and Society Scholars Program at Harvard
Summary: This project will develop and implement novel methods for making robust inferences on the parameters in a multilevel regression model for binary outcomes.

Project Title: The Impact of Education Policy on Young Adult Health Outcomes
PI(s): Sebastian Vollmer, Dr. rer. pol, Postdoctoral Fellow, Program on the Global Demography of Aging; Jennifer Jennings, PhD, RWJ Health and Society Scholar, Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, and Assistant Professor of Sociology, NYU (on leave 2009-2011)
Funder: Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies
Summary: This project exploits temporal and geographic variation in the introduction of three education policy changes in Germany to identify the effects of a) the shift in between-school tracking from age 12 to age 10, b) increases in the length of the school day, and c) a reduction in the years of secondary education required to enter college, on young adults’ mental health, fertility, and educational attainment.

Project Title: Utilizing concept mapping to explore perceptions of factors that influence food buying practices among residents of low-income neighborhoods
PI: Renee Walker, PhD, Kellogg Health Scholar and Yerby Fellow, Harvard School of Public Health
Funder: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health and Society Scholars Program at Harvard
Summary: This study will identify perceptions of factors influencing food buying practices among residents of a low-income, urban food desert and residents of a low-income, urban food oasis; understand how these factors are related; and examine how residents’ perceptions of factors influencing food buying practices differ by food security status.