Trees (over grass) to promote health in urban settings

Recent Harvard RWJF Health & Society Scholar Colleen Reid, along with Harvard Pop Center faculty member Laura Kubzansky, are authors on a paper that suggests that trees—more than grass and apart from parks—may be a key element to green space when it comes to promoting health in urban settings.  

Rising temperatures may lower your spirits, sense of well-being

Former Harvard Pop Center fellows Clemens Noelke, Mark McGovern, and Daniel Corsi, along with Pop Center Director Lisa Berkman, are among the authors of a study published in Environmental Research that looked at temperature and emotional well-being in a sample of 1.9 million Americans over a six-year period. Temperatures over 70 degrees were associated with reduced positive emotions, and increased negative emotions and fatigue, particularly among less educated and older Americans.

Dr. Matthew Gillman named director of revamped NIH program focused on child health & development

Harvard Pop Center faculty member Matthew Gillman, MD, has been selected by National Institutes of Health (NIH) to be the program director of ECHO (Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes), a revamped approach to achieving the same goals as the retired National Children’s Study, an NIH initiative ordered by Congress that was halted in 2014.

Cumulative lifetime use of marijuana found to impact verbal memory in middle age

Harvard Pop Center faculty member Maria Glymour is an author on a paper published in JAMA Internal Medicine that explores the long-term effects of lifetime marijuana use on memory and other aspects of cognitive function.

Home foreclosure adversely impacts health & mental health of homeowner & neighboring residents

Harvard Robert Wood Johnson Health & Society scholar alum and current Harvard Pop Center faculty member Alexander Tsai, MD, has authored a study published in PloS One that examines the effects of home foreclosure (which accounts for approximately 5% of U.S. residential properties) on the health and mental health of the individual homeowner, as well as the effects of the foreclosure on other residents in the community.

Matt Wray comments in “Poor Whites Need Jesus and Justice Too”

Harvard RWJF Health & Society Scholar program alum Matt Wray, PhD, shares some insights from his 2006 book Not Quite White: White Trash and the Boundaries of Whiteness in this op-ed in The Christian Post on evangelicals and their apparent lack of focus on lower-class white people.

Is education a factor in mortality gap between U.S. & Europe?

Harvard Pop Center Director Lisa Berkman, PhD, and faculty member Mauricio Avendano, PhD, are co-authors on a study published in the American Journal of Public Health that suggests that the larger educational disparities in mortality in the United States partly explain why US adults have higher mortality than their European counterparts. Although more evidence is needed, the study suggests that policies to reduce mortality among the lower educated could be…

Study shows using machine learning algorithms can reliably predict air quality during major wildfire

Harvard Robert Wood Johnson Health & Society Scholar Colleen Reid, PhD, is lead author on a study published Environmental Science & Technology that applied machine learning algorithms that combine data from satellites and chemical transport models (CMTs) – a type of computer numerical model – to predict fine particulate matter during the 2008 northern California wildfires.

Chicago police use Papachristos’ theories to target those at highest risk & curb violence

The research of Harvard Robert Wood Johnson Health & Society Scholar program alum Andrew Papachristos, PhD, on social-network violence is featured in an article in the Chicago Sun Times. Papachristos and colleagues published a study in Social Science & Medicine that revealed that 70 percent of nonfatal injuries occur within networks containing 6 percent of the city’s population. Based on Papachristos’ social-network theories, the Chicago Police Department is generating lists…