Faculty member Marcia Castro is author on a study published in PNAS that finds that there was a significant decline in births in Brazil after the onset of the Zika virus.
Study points to marked increase in marketing of sugar-sweetened beverages in grocery stores when food stamps are dispersed
Faculty member S V Subramanian, PhD, and former RWJF Health & Society Scholar Christina Roberto, are among the authors of a study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine that has received coverage in The Washington Post.
State laws permitting denial of services to same-sex couples linked to significant increase in mental distress among sexual minority adults
S. Bryn Austin, ScD, is an author on a paper published in JAMA Psychiatry that has found that state laws permitting the denial of services to sexual minorities (currently, 12 states have such laws) was associated with a 46% increase in the proportion of sexual minority (defined as gay, lesbian, bisexual, or not sure of their sexual orientation) adults experiencing mental distress.
Long-term effects on sleep of older natural disaster victims
Ichiro Kawachi, MD, PhD, and Orfeu Buxton, PhD, are authors on a study that evaluated the sleep of those aged 65 and older who were impacted by the 2011Â Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami. Two and a half years after the event, those who experienced material loss, such as financial and home, were still at greater risk of sleep problems.
How can we safeguard health despite deregulation of federal food policies?
Sara Bleich, PhD, has penned a discussion in Preventive Medicine that outlines some of the recent changes made to nutritional policies as a result of deregulation efforts by the current federal administration. She emphasizes the important role that state governments and public health departments can and should play in implementing nutritional policies to safeguard people’s health.
Education interrupted: Impacts of family disruption on children’s educational attainment
Recent Bell Fellow Juli Simon Thomas, PhD, has authored a paper that confirms that disruptive events within a family, such as parental loss/gain of job/partner lowered the chances of their children completing high school, attending college and finishing college, and more significantly contributes new insight into the increased negative effects of multiple events within a 2-year period.
Women business owners in India & Sri Lanka commonly invest their microfinance loans & grants in male household member’s business enterprises
A recent working paper by Harvard Pop Center Bell Fellow Natalia Rigol, PhD, along with faculty member Rohini Pande, PhD, is the subject of this post on Ideas for India that offers some explanations as to why previous studies have shown that female-operated enterprises in India and Sri Lanka have not benefited from access to grants and loans as much as male-operated businesses.
Lack of purpose drives many retirees back to work
Harvard Pop Center faculty member Nicole Maestas, PhD, shares insights into “unretirement” on NPR podcast.
A deeper look at complex nature of loneliness and social isolation among aging Americans
Recent Bell Fellow Lindsay Kobayashi, PhD, is co-author on this paper that finds that not all older, independent people who are socially isolated feel lonely, and that poor health can have both negative and positive effects on perception of social isolation.
Dean Michelle Williams pens op-ed on social isolation as public health issue & cites Nations at Risk colloquium
In today’s Boston Globe, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Dean and Pop Center faculty member Michelle Williams co-authors editorial on role that loneliness and social isolation play in “deaths of despair” as described by Professor Sir Angus Deaton at the recent Nations at Risk colloquium.