A study authored by Harvard Pop Center Research Scientist Elyse Jennings, PhD, and other researchers affiliated with the Health and Aging in Africa: Longitudinal Studies in Africa (HAALSA), including Darina Bassil, Kathleen Kahn, and Sumaya Mall, examines the impacts of childhood (and adulthood) adversity on later-life cognitive, mental, and physical health in a rural Black South African population.
Nicotine use and cardiometabolic health: A novel look at the complementary relationship between genetic and socioeconomic/lifestyle factors
Former Harvard postdoctoral fellows Adam Lippert, Dan Corsi, and Rockli Kim, along with faculty member S (Subu) V Subramanian, and their colleagues have published a study in Nicotine and Tobacco Research that is one of few studies to assess cumulative genetic contributions to nicotine use and cardiometabolic health during early mid-life alongside socioeconomic and lifestyle factors.
Darina Bassil selected for new APC fellowship
Congratulations to Darina Bassil, Pop Center research scientist, who was selected for the inaugural cohort of the Association of Population Center (APC) Fellowship program for 2024–2025. Darina is project director of the HAALSI Dementia Study (HAALSI-HCAP) and is responsible for overseeing study data collection, management and analysis, as well as managing the cognitive components of the HAALSA project. She holds a PhD in public health from Imperial College London, and…
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Announcing the 2024 Dillon Family Fellowship Award recipients
Congratulations to Harvard Pop Center graduate student affiliates Muqi Guo and Dena Javadi on being named the recipients of the Dillon Family Fellowship Award. This long-standing monetary award was created to benefit graduate students at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Muqi Guo is a PhD candidate in population health sciences in the Department of Global Health & Population. Her dissertation is entitled “Reproductive Health and Women’s Well-being…
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How did household size & virtual contact impact anxiety levels associated with social distancing during COVID-19 in rural South Africa?
A study by researchers affiliated with the national study Health and Aging in Africa: Longitudinal Studies in South Africa (HAALSA) based on data from a phone survey reveals that although declines in social interaction were associated with increased anxiety levels among both men and women in rural South Africa during the COVID-19 pandemic, women living in larger households seemed to be especially impacted. “For women, living in larger households may…
Exploring the link between an optimistic attitude and physical functioning as women age
Bell Fellow Hayami Koga, along with Harvard Pop Center faculty members David Williams and Laura Kubzansky and their colleagues, have published a study in JAMA Psychiatry on the association between optimism and physical functioning among older women finding higher levels of optimism to be linked with better performance at baseline (grip strength and standing mobility) and slower rates of decline in several measures over a six-year period. Read about their…
David Canning (and his research on chess and cognitive aging) is in GQ!
Harvard Pop Center faculty member David Canning shares insights gleaned from his research on the relationship between chess and cognitive aging in this piece published in GQ. You can also learn more in this Harvard Chan School news post.
INTRODUCING our 2024–2026 cohort of Bell Postdoctoral Fellows!
We’re thrilled to announce that two new Bell Fellows have been selected from a competitive pool of applicants and will be joining us this coming fall! Kate Beach will complete her PhD in geography & environment at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she has trained in health geography, spatial epidemiology, and population science at the Carolina Population Center. Beach’s work focuses on the links between health…
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Voting Rights Act linked with reduction in Black infant deaths in Jim Crow states
HCPDS Graduate Student Affiliate Tamara Rushovich, along with faculty member Nancy Krieger and their colleagues have published a study in the American Journal of Public Health that investigates the impact of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 on Black and Black vs. White infant deaths in Jim Crow states. Photo by Barbara Verge on Unsplash
Three “Conversations” that tell the story of health and aging in rural South Africa
Physicians, professors and research scientists affiliated with Health and Aging in Africa: Longitudinal Studies in South Africa (HAALSA)—the ten-year (and counting) project that has been following a cohort that started as 5,000 men and women aged 40 and over—have penned three pieces in The Conversation that delve into unique aspects of this burgeoning population: Pioneering researchers Stephen Tollman and Kathleen Kahn from the University of the Witwatersrand reflect back on…