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…

Harvard Pop Center Director Lisa Berkman is appointed president of APC

Harvard Pop Center Director Lisa Berkman has recently been appointed president of The Association of Population Centers (APC). The organization, an independent group of universities and research groups whose mission is to foster collaborative demographic research and data sharing, translate basic population research for public policy decision-makers, and provide educational and training opportunities in population studies, was founded in 1991, and is open to any organization with a primary interest in…

Harvard Pop Center Bell Fellow Ian Salas Receives Prestigious Award

J.M. Ian Salas, PhD, one of our current Bell Fellows, was recently presented with the prestigious Dorothy S. Thomas Award by the Population Association of America (PAA) at their annual meeting in Boston. This award, which recognizes research focused on the interrelationships among social, economic and demographic variables, was given to Salas for a paper that was published while he was a doctoral student at the University of California Irvine…

Videos of Speaker Presentations at 50th Anniversary Symposium

In honor of its 50th anniversary, the Harvard Pop Center recently held a symposium titled Reimagining Societies in the Face of Demographic Change that featured presentations by Julio Frenk, Lisa Berkman, Babatunde Osotimehin, Jack Rowe, and Sir Michael Marmot, as well as a panel discussion including Pop Center Associate Director David Canning and faculty members Amitabh Chandra, SV Subramanian (Subu), and Mary Waters. Video recordings of these presentations and discussions are…

Study shows link between lack of sleep and increased body fat in children

As reported on the Harvard Medical School’s website, a new study by Pop Center affiliated faculty members Elsie M. Taveras, MD, MPH and Matthew W. Gillman, MD, SM published in Pediatrics shows a strong link between chronic lack sleep (from infancy through mid-childhood) and increased body fat.

Maybe not everything gets better with time; a first long-term study of lifetime exposure to solvents and cognitive functioning

As reported in Time and Reuters, Harvard Pop Center fellow Erika Sabbath, ScD, and Harvard Pop Center affiliated faculty member Cassandra A. Okechukwu, ScD, have published a study in Neurology that examines the effects of lifetime solvent exposure among retired French utility workers. Those at greatest risk for cognitive deficits had experienced long-term exposure, even though the exposure might have ceased as long as 30 years prior.

Following ban of Donald Sterling from the NBA, Harvard sociologist David Williams comments on racial inequalities in The Montreal Gazette

The ban of Donald Sterling from the NBA for racist comments has generated increased conversation about the presence and impact of racism in the U.S.  The Harvard Pop Center’s affiliated faculty member sociologist David Williams is one of several experts who share their insights in this feature in The Montreal Gazette.