Posted on

If this is to be the “Decade of Healthy Ageing,” treatments and support for Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRDs) need to scale up now

Illustration of profile of a person's head with puzzle pieces

The United Nations has declared that we are now in the “UN Decade of Healthy Ageing” (2021-2030) as a way to address the challenges that accompany increasing global life expectancy. Two researchers affiliated with the Harvard Pop Center (David Bloom and Benjamin Seligman) are among the authors of this piece published on voxeu.org that cites the rapidly developed COVID-19 vaccine as proof that complex health crises can be successfully tackled.…

Continue reading “If this is to be the “Decade of Healthy Ageing,” treatments and support for Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRDs) need to scale up now”

Posted on

When it comes to risk factors for COVID-19 mortality, simulation study finds social determinants of health on par with diabetes

African American man sits on a bench

To compensate for there being little data available on the relationship between COVID-19 deaths and social determinants of health, Harvard Pop Center faculty members Ben Seligman and David Bloom, along with their colleague Maddalena Ferranna, have published a simulation study in PLOS Medicine that finds that individual-level social determinants of health (e.g., nonwhite race/ethnicity, income below the median income level, less than a high school education, and being a veteran) are…

Continue reading “When it comes to risk factors for COVID-19 mortality, simulation study finds social determinants of health on par with diabetes”

Posted on

Follow-up: Results of first round of COVID-19 survey released

coronavirus

Professors David Bloom and David Canning, along with Rashmi Dayalu (all associated with the Program on Global Demography of Aging (PGDA) at Harvard, and Boston University Assistant Professor Mahesh Karra, have released the results of the first round of their survey focused on social distancing behavior and COVID-19 symptoms. Are older people practicing social distancing more than younger people? Do some symptoms influence behavior more than others? See the results…

Continue reading “Follow-up: Results of first round of COVID-19 survey released”

Posted on

Professors Bloom and Canning pen op-ed proposing a scientific, cost-effective way to get needed data on COVID-19 infection rate

David Bloom David Canning headhshots

In today’s Boston Globe, David Bloom and David Canning, both Harvard Pop Center faculty members, call for conducting COVID-19 tests on a representative sample of the population, leveraging already collected data from the US Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, along with additional information currently being culled by the COVID-19 Symptoms & Social Distancing Web Survey being conducted by their team at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Learn…

Continue reading “Professors Bloom and Canning pen op-ed proposing a scientific, cost-effective way to get needed data on COVID-19 infection rate”

Posted on

PGDA joins fight against COVID-19 with symptoms and social distancing web survey

coronavirus

Professors David Bloom and David Canning, along with Rashmi Dayalu (all associated with the Program on Global Demography of Aging (PGDA) at Harvard, and Boston University Assistant Professor Mahesh Karra, have created a 5-minute survey that can be taken by U.S. residents age 18 and over to help gather information on COVID-19 symptoms and social distancing behavior at a national level. Your participation will help to advance research to better…

Continue reading “PGDA joins fight against COVID-19 with symptoms and social distancing web survey”

Posted on

Sudharsanan and Bloom share insights into demography of aging in LMICs in new guidebook

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine has produced a guide (based on papers that were presented at a public workshop in 2017) to demography of aging research trends and future directions. Harvard Bell Fellow Nikkil Sudharsanan, PhD, and faculty member David E. Bloom, PhD, have contributed a chapter that more closely examines the expected boom in population in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), weighing the impact of both…

Continue reading “Sudharsanan and Bloom share insights into demography of aging in LMICs in new guidebook”

Posted on

Berkman, Canning and Pop Center faculty featured in cover story on “Silver Tsunami”

Harvard Public Health, The Magazine of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health is out with its Fall issue featuring a cover story entitled The Aging Game, Perils and Promises of a Graying Society. The Harvard Pop Center Director Lisa Berkman, along with Associate Director David Canning, and faculty members David Bloom and Ichiro Kawachi, are among the experts who share their thoughts on “successful aging” including physical, financial…

Continue reading “Berkman, Canning and Pop Center faculty featured in cover story on “Silver Tsunami””

Posted on

Report warns of high cost of increasing non-communicable diseases in Indonesia

A World Economic Forum report co-authored by Pop Center affiliated faculty member David Bloom, PhD, and PGDA Fellow Mark McGovern, PhD, warn that increasing non-communicable diseases (cardiovascular disease, cancer, chronic respiratory diseases, diabetes and mental health conditions) could cost the emerging country of Indonesia close to 4.5 trillion dollars from 2012-2030. The report was covered by CNBC and this Wall Street Journal blog.

Posted on

Scaling up male circumcision in Sub-Saharan Africa could prevent more than 1 million HIV infections

Harvard Pop Center faculty members Till Bärnighausen, ScD, MD, PhD, and David Bloom, PhD, are co-authors of a new paper written for the 2015 Copenhagen Consensus that touts scaling up male circumcision to include 90% of Sub-Saharan males who are not HIV infected as a way to cost-effectively and dramatically reduce HIV infections. The findings of the paper, which also include expanding anti-retroviral treatment (ART), are featured in a news story…

Continue reading “Scaling up male circumcision in Sub-Saharan Africa could prevent more than 1 million HIV infections”