Research by our Bell Fellow A. Nicole Kreisberg is cited in this piece in The Boston Globe: “America is running out of working-age adults. Here’s how to solve the labor shortage.” If you can’t access the above link, here is a pdf version of the piece.
The Harvard Gazette reports: “How total abortion ban puts maternal health at risk”
Harvard Pop Center faculty member Jocelyn Viterna spoke with The Harvard Gazette about her decade of experience researching reproductive justice in El Salvador. Photo: Kris Snibbe/Harvard Staff Photographer
What were the longer-term impacts for older workers who experienced a work disruption at the start of the pandemic?
Our recent Sloan Fellow on Aging and Work Leah Abrams, along with our former Bell Fellow Lindsay Kobayashi, and their colleague Jessica Finlay, have published their findings in Innovation in Aging, reporting on the economic and mental ramifications six months after the layoffs, furloughs, and reduced hours many workers experienced in early spring 2020. Here’s a findings snapshot: of those who lost their job, 1/3 were still out of work…
“Change the workplace, not the worker”: More news about the Work and Well-Being Initiative’s role in advising the U.S. Surgeon General’s Office
The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health has reported about the role that the Work and Well-Being Initiative (and its researchers) played in advising the U.S. Surgeon General on its new Framework on workplace mental health and well-being…
Researchers using all-cause mortality data from civil registration systems estimate that deaths from COVID-19 in India are much higher than officially recorded
Harvard Bell Fellow Aashish Gupta has co-authored a research article—along with colleague Murad Banaji—published in PLOS Global Public Health that utilizes all-cause mortality data from civil registration systems across 12 states in India as a way to try and get a more accurate estimation of COVID-19 deaths than what has been reported by the “patchy” mortality surveillance system in that country. “The surveillance of pandemic mortality in India has been…
Is there a secret to enabling an aging population working in the service sector to stay in the workforce longer?
Recent Harvard Sloan Fellow on Aging & Work Leah Abrams, along with HCPDS faculty member Daniel Schneider, and their colleague Kristen Harknett, have published an article in The Gerontologist that reports that although scheduling conditions were found to be more stable for workers ages 50–80 than they were for younger workers, more than 80% of this older cohort experienced at least one type of routine schedule instability that was associated with…
India Policy Insights investigates variation in the quality of maternal and newborn care between smaller areas within districts in India
Researchers affiliated with the India Policy Insights initiative have published the findings of a cross-sectional study in JAMA Network Open that reports there being more variation in maternal and newborn care quality (measured by 11 individual components of care) in smaller, “within-district” geographic areas compared to the district- and state-level, suggesting that “policy around maternal and child health care needs to be designed more precisely to consider district mean and…
HAALSI study evaluates less expensive and easier to implement method to assess salt consumption at the population level in rural South Africa
South Africa has introduced regulations to reduce sodium in processed foods. Researchers affiliated with the HAALSI study have found that spot urine samples, a less expensive (and less complicated) method of assessing salt consumption, are a viable alternative to the standard 24-h urine collection method for evaluating the population median 24hrUNa excretion. The findings, published in the Journal of Hypertension, “could play an important role for governments and public health…
Paid sick leave has added benefit of reducing gender inequality
Faculty member Daniel Schneider has co-authored a research article in Health Affairs that draws from the findings of the Shift Project regarding paid sick leave for low-wage workers and gender inequality. Schneider and his co-author Kristen Harknett report that there was limited access to paid leave, especially among women. In states and localities that paid for sick leave, however, the benefit was more widely accessed and the gender disparity was…
Continue reading “Paid sick leave has added benefit of reducing gender inequality”
Safeguarding the health of residential addiction treatment center workers could reduce worker turnover (and help their patients have better outcomes!)
In response to the opioid epidemic and the additional strains of the pandemic, a study published in Social Science & Medicine parses out which socio-contextual factors were found to be affecting provider health and turnover. Authors include HCPDS Director Lisa Berkman, faculty member Laura Kubzansky and former postdoctoral fellow Erika Sabbath. Photo: Pix4free.org