Longevity | Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies | Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Optimistic outlook linked to greater, even “exceptional,” longevity

Laura Kubzansky and her colleagues have published a paper in PNAS that has furthered previous research on the link between optimism and better health to now find a relationship between optimism and greater longevity (up to 15% longer, on average) including increased odds of living to 85 years old or beyond. The findings have received … Continue reading “Optimistic outlook linked to greater, even “exceptional,” longevity”

Aging Well; Examining Health of Those on Their Way to Becoming Centenarians

Former Harvard Pop Center Bell Fellow Hiram Beltran-Sanchez, PhD, has co-authored a study that examines the long-term trajectories of disease, disability and cognitive functioning among potential centenarians, finding that those who lived to 100 had experienced overall better health along their journey to the century mark than the non-surviving members of their cohort, with about … Continue reading “Aging Well; Examining Health of Those on Their Way to Becoming Centenarians”

Recent publications & news

Study finds those who expected to be working at age 62 (but then weren’t) suffered from increase in depressive symptoms

July 8, 2021
Harvard Sloan Fellow on Aging and Work Leah Abrams, PhD, is an author on a paper published in The Journals of Gerontology, Series b that finds that middle-aged adults who experienced an “unexpected work exit” suffered from more depressive symptoms, whereas working longer than planned was not associated with an increase in these symptoms (except … Continue reading “Study finds those who expected to be working at age 62 (but then weren’t) suffered from increase in depressive symptoms”
Op-ed: How the “darker, unsettling narrative” of extreme racist hatred can shed light on what is “average”

June 22, 2021
This op-ed in the Toronto Star penned by former Harvard Bell Fellow Fahad Razak, MD, and contributor Lisa Berkman, PhD, explores the concept that what is viewed as extreme within a population may shed light on the average. Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash
Graduate Student Affiliate In Jeong Hwang wins prestigious award for research paper

June 17, 2021
In Jeong Hwang, a doctoral student in sociology at Harvard University, has been awarded a first place prize from Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) at the University of Michigan for her Master’s-level paper titled “Grandparenthood, Grandparenting, and Working Longer: Do the Genders of Grandparent and of Grandchild’s Parent Matter?” Congratulations, In Jeong … Continue reading “Graduate Student Affiliate In Jeong Hwang wins prestigious award for research paper”
Christina Cross in The Harvard Gazette: “Why living in a two-parent home isn’t a cure-all for Black students”

June 9, 2021
Harvard Pop Center Postdoctoral Fellow Christina Cross, PhD, has penned an op-ed in The Harvard Gazette in which she shares her forthcoming research on why a two-parent household is not a panacea for better educational outcomes for low-income Black students. Dr. Cross points to President Biden’s proposed American Families Plan as an example of a … Continue reading “Christina Cross in The Harvard Gazette: “Why living in a two-parent home isn’t a cure-all for Black students””
Mass vaccination campaign in India may have contributed to spike in cases

June 8, 2021
Professor S (Subu) V Subramanian, PhD, has authored a comment in The Lancet Global Health in which he cautions that the mass vaccination campaign in India may have contributed to the recent increase in COVID-19 cases there. He urges leadership in India to rethink its vaccination strategy to reduce virus spread by preventing overcrowding and … Continue reading “Mass vaccination campaign in India may have contributed to spike in cases”