Part of the answer may depend on where you live (industrial vs. agricultural economy). The findings of recent work by Harvard Pop Center faculty member and health economist David Cutler and his colleagues is cited in this New York Times article. He also comments on how opioids may be influencing the impact that the economy has on our health.
Not feeling so game to change some of your health-related habits?
Ichiro Kawachi, MD, shares his thoughts on how “gamification” (applying elements of game playing to other activities) can be used to motivate health-related behavior change in this invited commentary in JAMA Internal Medicine.
Calling all sports stats “geeks”
Harvard Pop Center faculty member Nancy Krieger and Associate Director Jason Beckfield have penned this op-ed in nydailynews.com that calls for sports stats geeks to put their quantitative skills to use to improve U.S. stats on deaths and injuries due to law enforcement.
Study reviews consequences of stunting on child development
Harvard Pop Center faculty member S V (Subu) Subramanian, PhD, and other current and past Pop Center researchers, have reviewed studies on the association between stunting and child development, and make some recommendations on next steps for the research community in this article in Social Science & Medicine.
When it comes to hiring, racial discrimination against African-Americans in U.S. holding steady
Despite improvements in racial bias and inequities in certain respects over the last 25 years in the United States, a new meta-analysis indicates that there has been no change in the level of hiring discrimination against African-Americans, while there has been some improvement within the Latino population. Harvard Pop Center faculty member Devah Pager, PhD, is author on a paper published in PNAS. Read more in Northwestern Now.
A call to unite & act as health care & public health professionals face potential public health crisis if DACA is terminated
Harvard Pop Center faculty member and RWJF Health & Society Scholar program alum Alexander Tsai, MD, PhD, has co-authored an editorial in The New England Journal of Medicine. Read more in Medical Xpress.
Race and socioeconomic status may play role in millions not having access to newly recommended treatment guidelines for cardiovascular disease
New expanded guidelines released by the American College of Cardiology and American Heart Association (ACC/AHA) include recommendations for statins for more people, many of those who are less likely to have access to these very treatments. Lead author and former Harvard Bell Fellow Fahad Razak, MD, did the research for this study published in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes while he was a visiting scientist at the Harvard Pop Center, along with co-author and…
Phthalates and parabens found in men’s urine shortly after use of common personal care products
Russ Hauser, MD, and Harvard Chan School Dean MichelleA. Williams, ScD, both Harvard Pop Center faculty members, are authors on a paper published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives that explores the link between the use of personal care products, such as cologne, deodorant and sunblock, and urine concentrations of phthalates and parabens, many of which are considered to be endocrine disruptors and are linked to adverse health outcomes. Learn…
Can having a sense of purpose later in life help you function better physically?
A novel study published in JAMA Psychiatry by Ichiro Kawachi, MD, and Laura Kubzansky, PhD, and colleagues has found an association between having a sense of purpose and better physical functioning, such as grip strength and walking speed, in older adults in the U.S.
Flame retardant chemicals found in many foam products may lower chances of pregnancy, live birth
A study by Harvard Pop Center faculty member Russ Hauser, MD, finds that women undergoing fertility treatments who were found to have higher concentrations of a common type of flame retardant in their urine were less likely to become clinically pregnant and achieve a live birth. Learn more in a press release by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.