Beth Truesdale, PhD, a Harvard Pop Center Sloan Fellow on Aging and Work, is this year’s recipient of the American Sociological Association’s Section on Aging & the Life Course graduate student paper award. Learn more in the ASA’s Fall newsletter. Congratulations, Beth!
Over time, electronic health records linked to lower hospital mortality
Ashish K. Jha, MD, MPH, is an author on the paper published in Health Affairs that has received media attention.
Reducing cost of health care in U.S. may require shrinking health care employment
Amitahb Chandra is co-author of this editorial in JAMA that suggests that the significant job growth in the health care sector may have to be scaled back in order to reduce health care costs.
Using cash transfers to reduce HIV risk in young South African women
Bell Fellows Molly Rosenberg and Xavier Gomez-Olives have contributed to a paper looking at a phase III, individually randomized trial to assess the effect of a conditional cash transfer on HIV acquisition among South African young women. The study has found that interventions like cash transfers that address structural factors such as schooling and poverty have the potential to reduce HIV risk in young women in South Africa. The paper’s…
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Amount of crime perceived and reported by adolescents is connected to their BMI and activity levels
Ann Forsyth was recently lead author on a paper titled “Perceived and Police-Reported Neighborhood Crime: Linkages to Adolescent Activity Behaviors and Weight Status.” Published in Journal of Adolescent Health, the study addressed the relationships of perceived and objective reports of neighborhood crime to adolescent physical activity, screen media use, and BMI. BMI was positively associated with perceived crime among girls, reported crime in girls, and perceived crime in boys.
Kawachi on link between neighborhood social capital and participation in health checks
Ichiro Kawachi recently published a study in BMC Public Health revealing that higher level of neighborhood social capital was associated with higher probability of participating in the health check phase of a population-based lifestyle intervention, suggesting that activating social relations in the community may be an avenue for boosting participation rates in population-based health checks.
Is education a factor in mortality gap between U.S. & Europe?
Harvard Pop Center Director Lisa Berkman, PhD, and faculty member Mauricio Avendano, PhD, are co-authors on a study published in the American Journal of Public Health that suggests that the larger educational disparities in mortality in the United States partly explain why US adults have higher mortality than their European counterparts. Although more evidence is needed, the study suggests that policies to reduce mortality among the lower educated could be…
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The protective effect of education for cohorts graduating in bad times
Timing is everything. A study by David Cutler confirms that graduates who enter the labor market during bad economic times experience lower income, lower life satisfaction, greater obesity, more smoking and drinking later in life. The study also noted that education plays a protective role for these outcomes, as educated individuals, even when entering the market at times of high unemployment, have a much lower incidence of these outcomes than their…
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Pop Center-affiliated Researchers Weigh In on Potential Benefits of Calorie Labeling in Restaurants
Pop Center RWJF Scholar Christina Roberto, PhD, and affiliated faculty member Jason Block, MD, have co-authored a Viewpoint published in JAMA in which they discuss the reasons why many public health advocates support menu labeling.
Being Socially Well-Integrated Reduces Risk of Suicide
A 24-year prospective cohort study authored by Harvard RWJF Health & Societies Scholar Program Alum Alexander Tsai and Harvard Pop Center affiliated faculty member Ichiro Kawachi indicates that middle-aged men who are well-integrated socially have more than a 2-fold reduced risk for suicide. Being married, having a larger social network, and attending religious services on a regular basis showed the strongest protective associations. This study was published online July 14…
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