Research Projects by PI

PI: Lisa Berkman, PhD, Thomas Cabot Professor of Public Policy, Epidemiology, and Global Health and Population, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and Director, Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies
Funder: National Institute on Aging
Summary: This project furthers research conducted by the HAALSI team on the social and biological risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD) in an aging population in rural South Africa. The HAALSI Dementia Study follows a cohort of 600 participants through two additional waves of dementia diagnostic evaluation—including an enriched cognitive battery, informant interviews, and neurological examinations. Additional participants at risk for dementia are also being recruited from the parent HAALSI study, ultimately leading to a more accurate understanding of ADRD prevalence in the larger cohort. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and venous blood draws will be conducted to better characterize structural brain aging and genetic markers of ADRD in this unique population.

PI: Lisa Berkman, PhD, Thomas Cabot Professor of Public Policy, Epidemiology, and Global Health and Population, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and Director, Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies
Funding: National Institute on Aging
Summary: Using HAALSI data, this study will determine how cumulative, randomized, and quasi-randomized socioeconomic exposures in mid-to-later-life affect memory decline and ADRD risk in later-life, by linking three unique population data sources in South Africa that cover a 22-year period (2000 to 2021). These contributions will provide robust evidence on ADRD etiology and will serve as sentinel findings for prevention strategies not only in sub-Saharan Africa, where there is currently little data outside of this study, but also for guiding interventions in ADRD prevention programs globally.

PIs: Lisa Berkman, PhD, Thomas Cabot Professor of Public Policy and Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and Director, Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, and Thomas Gaziano, associate professor of medicine, Harvard Medical School
Funder: National Institute on Aging
Summary: The goal of this longitudinal research project is to study the drivers and consequences of HIV and non-communicable diseases (including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cognitive impairments) in an aging population in South Africa.

PI: Lisa Berkman, PhD, Thomas Cabot Professor of Public Policy, Epidemiology, and Global Health and Population, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Director, Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies
Funder: Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
Summary: This project gathers an interdisciplinary community of top scholars to examine how the contexts that shape individuals’ likelihood of working longer are changing across cohorts, and how they affect some population groups—especially racial minorities and lower-income workers—more than others. The resulting volume of new research has the potential to influence public policies that improve the workplace for older employees, and to increase the public’s understanding of aging and labor force challenges.

Project PI: Lisa Berkman, PhD, Thomas Cabot Professor of Public Policy, Epidemiology, and Global Health and Population, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health; and Director, Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies
Funder: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Summary: The aim of this project is to develop a new vision of the work-health equation by first, expanding the view of health to include a multi-faceted perspective on “well-being” and “resilience,” and second, by broadening the health-promoting strategies considered by employers and policymakers to include a work redesign approach. The research itself will involve conducting a systematic review of publications on workplace interventions and their effects on worker well-being using transdisciplinary methods. Qualitative interviews with employers, employees, and employee-advocacy groups will be conducted to gather information on effective strategies and practices. At the conclusion of the project, a website will be launched to highlight important findings and a toolkit with recommendations and guidance will be devised.

PI: Joscha Legewie, PhD
Funder: National Science Foundation (NSF)
Summary: Over the last three decades, cities across the United States have adopted strategies known as proactive or broken windows policing with a focus on strict enforcement of low-level crimes and extensive use of pedestrian stops. As a consequence of these changes, an increasing number of minority youth have involuntary contact with the criminal justice system. Building on large-scale, administrative data from New York City to track police activity, crime and student outcomes over time and across neighborhoods, this project examines the consequences of neighborhood and school-level exposure to broken-window policing strategies and tactics for the educational outcomes of minority youth.

Also referred to as Burden of Disease and Deprivation in India across Micro and Macro Public Policy Units

PI: S (Subu) V Subramanian, PhD, and Rockli Kim, ScD
Funder: Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
Summary: Data on population health and development are generally collected and monitored for administrative areas: in the U.S., it is by county or town, and in India, it is by district. These districts (aka administrative areas) do not necessarily coincide with the areas represented by the politicians designing government programs and making decisions about government spending. By using state-of-the-art geospatial and statistical methodologies, researchers in this project will triangulate various sources of population health and development data geocoded to multiple micro and macro public policy units, namely Gram Panchayat (GP), Assembly Constituency (AC) and Parliamentary Constituency (PC), and make robust predictions at each level. These findings will be widely disseminated to various stakeholders via intelligent public data and analytics platform with the goal of informing precision public policy, public financing, and governance in India related to population health and development.

**This project is connected to the research taking place at the Geographic Insights Lab.