Impact of schedule control on quality of care in nursing homes

Pop Center director Lisa Berkman and faculty member Cassandra Okechukwu have contributed to a study that examines whether the quality of care in nursing homes can be predicted by schedule control (workers’ ability to decide work hours), independently of other staffing characteristics. The study found that higher schedule control did indeed have the power to improve quality of care, as it was associated a lower prevalence of pressure ulcers.

Aging Well; Examining Health of Those on Their Way to Becoming Centenarians

Former Harvard Pop Center Bell Fellow Hiram Beltran-Sanchez, PhD, has co-authored a study that examines the long-term trajectories of disease, disability and cognitive functioning among potential centenarians, finding that those who lived to 100 had experienced overall better health along their journey to the century mark than the non-surviving members of their cohort, with about 25% with no chronic illness, 20% with no disability, and over 50% with no cognitive…

Older American workers more likely to be depressed after job loss than their European counterparts

In support of a recent study on job loss and depression in the USA and Europe published in the International Journal of Epidemiology and reported by CBS News, Harvard Pop Center Director Lisa Berkman has written a commentary. The HSPH researchers and their colleagues found that older American workers (aged 50-64) are more likely to experience depression after job loss than their European counterparts. In Berkman’s commentary, The hidden and…

Rural South Africa seeing increase in mortality in population aged over 50 due to HIV/TB

Harvard Pop Center Director Lisa Berkman, PhD, and affiliated researchers Kathleen Kahn, PhD, and Stephen Tollman, PhD, have co-authored a study published in the International Journal of Social Epidemiology that examines the social conditions and disability related to the mortality of older people in rural South Africa.

The Optimal Age of Retirement

What’s the best age at which to retire? This question is certainly a current hot topic. David Canning, who co-directs the Pop Center, and David Bloom, head of the Program on the Global Demography of Aging, have developed a new model for predicting the optimal age of retirement and have published their work in The Scandinavian Journal of Economics. Their model predicts continuing declines in the optimal retirement age, despite rising life…

Berkman’s paper factors in regional context to trends in educational gradient of mortality

Pop Center Director Lisa Berkman, PhD, and former RWJF scholar Jennifer Karas Montez co-authored a paper published in the American Journal of Public Health, titled “Trends in the Educational Gradient of Mortality Among US Adults Aged 45 to 84 Years: Bringing Regional Context Into the Explanation.”

Pop Center Director Lisa Berkman’s Appearance on Panel Featured in Harvard Gazette and Huffington Post

Pop Center Director Lisa Berkman‘s appearance on Tuesday’s panel discussion titled “Living Longer and Happier Lives: The Science Behind Healthy Aging” (sponsored by The Forum at HSPH in collaboration with The Huffington Post) is featured in the Harvard Gazette and The Huffington Post.

The Forum at HSPH and The Huffington Post present “Living Longer and Happier Lives: The Science Behind Healthy Aging”

On Tuesday, January 21, 2014, from 12:30-1:30, The Forum at HSPH, in collaboration with The Huffington Post, will present a panel discussion titled “Living Longer and Happier Lives: The Science Behind Healthy Aging.” Don’t miss Pop Center Director Lisa Berkman as she participates in this informative discussion. Limited seats are available or tune in to watch the recorded webcast.