Elderly may face increased dementia risk after a disaster
For immediate release: October 24, 2016 Boston, MA – Elderly people who were uprooted from damaged or destroyed homes and who lost touch with their neighbors after the 2011 tsunami in Japan were more likely to experience increased…
Working with homeless women teaches student valuable lessons
December 16, 2015 — As an undergraduate at McGill University in Montreal, Anvita Kulkarni, SM ’16, had a passion for social justice and health equity. Two years ago, she stumbled across an online course, Health and Society, taught…
Long-term depression may double stroke risk for middle-aged adults
Study finds stroke risk remains elevated even after depressive symptoms improve For immediate release: Wednesday, May 13, 2015 Boston, MA ─ Adults over 50 who have persistent symptoms of depression may have twice the risk of stroke as those…
Blacks may not receive same health benefits from moderate alcohol drinking as whites
Study finds risks, benefits of alcohol consumption differ by gender as well For immediate release: April 23, 2015 Boston, MA ─ Although moderate alcohol consumption appears to lower mortality risk among whites, it may not have the same…
No mental health benefit from fish oil
In spite of conventional wisdom that the omega-3 fatty acids found in fish can protect against depression, a large new study from Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) found no such benefit. Researchers examined the link between suicide…
Harvard Public Health Magazine Extra: Social Capital & Health
April 2014 - Roseto, Pennsylvania was settled by Italian immigrants who were found to have astonishingly low rates of heart disease in the 1950s. Ichiro Kawachi, chair of Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health's Department of Social…
Poverty, disasters & health against all odds
[Fall 2013 Centennial issue] The most powerful influences on population health are not the medical interventions that diagnose and treat disease. Rather, they are the broad social forces—war or peace, poverty or financial security, political oppression or fundamental…
Racism harms health
[Fall 2013 Centennial issue] "I remember thinking, as a young assistant professor, ‘Oh my God, you can actually measure racism?’ recalled Ichiro Kawachi. He was referring to the groundbreaking work two decades ago of his colleague, social epidemiologist…
HarvardX’s fall course lineup includes new HSPH offerings
Harvard is planning to offer a dozen new online courses in the 2013-14 school year through HarvardX—the University’s branch of the online education platform edX— including new courses taught by Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) faculty. The…
Q&A: The science of irrationality
[ Spring 2013 ] Why we act against our own best interests Human beings act irrationally. This long-established observation, corroborated now by the burgeoning field of behavioral economics—which studies the influence of social, cognitive and emotional forces on our choices…
