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Study on optimism and longevity in women led by GSA Hayami Koga receives high Altmetric score for being cited & shared digitally

Altmetric score of 1717

A study led by our graduate student affiliate Hayami Koga (faculty member Laura Kubzansky is also an author) received the highest Altmetric score (1717) for being the most cited, shared, and “talked about” article in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society in 2022. The study, which was profiled in The Harvard Gazette, found that women across racial and ethnic groups who reported having a positive outlook, were more likely…

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Bell Fellow A. Nicole Kreisberg talks with The Boston Globe about ways that we can solve the labor shortage problem

Head shot of Nicole K

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.

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What were the longer-term impacts for older workers who experienced a work disruption at the start of the pandemic?

Head shots of Leah Abrams and Lindsay Kobayashi

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…

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“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

Five essentials for workplace mental health and worker well-being

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…            

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Researchers using all-cause mortality data from civil registration systems estimate that deaths from COVID-19 in India are much higher than officially recorded

Head shot of Aashish Gupta

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…

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Is there a secret to enabling an aging population working in the service sector to stay in the workforce longer?

Older man of color working in a grocery store

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…

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India Policy Insights investigates variation in the quality of maternal and newborn care between smaller areas within districts in India

Maps of India showing maternal and newborn health

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…

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HAALSI study evaluates less expensive and easier to implement method to assess salt consumption at the population level in rural South Africa

HAALSI men and women

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…

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Paid sick leave has added benefit of reducing gender inequality

Head shot of Daniel Schneider

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…

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