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News/Features
June 24, 2014
Natasha Dow Schüll (Alumna) Gaming the Poor
June 21, 2014 (New York Times) As casinos have spread into de-industrialized cities, dying resorts and gritty urban areas, the rate of gambling participation has grown among lower-income groups.
June 24, 2014
Cynthia Colen (Alumna) Most Women Can’t Afford to Breastfeed
May 22, 2014 (New York Times) Many people think of the decision to breast-feed as simply a personal choice. Yet, successful breast-feeding is highly dependent on a mother’s ability to spend extended periods of time with her baby, both during the day and throughout the night.
June 23, 2014
Jason Houle (Alumnus) Student Debt Is Hurting Homeownership For Blacks More than Whites
June 20, 2014 (Wall Street Journal) Is student loan debt causing young adults to retreat from the housing market en masse? No, but it’s having some impact, and the debt burden appears to be hitting black borrowers harder than whites, says a recent paper from researchers Jason Houle of Dartmouth College and Lawrence Berger of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
April 18, 2014
David Van Sickle (Alumnus) What If Doctors Could Finally Prescribe Behavior Change?
April 17, 2014 (Forbes) Three out of four Americans will die of a disease that could be avoided—if only they could re-route their unhealthy habits. A new category of medicine, digital therapeutics, wants to change the course of these conditions — and of history.
April 18, 2014
Katie McLaughlin (Alumna) Marathon Bombing Study Makes Link Between Brain and Trauma
April 18, 2014 (New England Public Radio) When the Boston Marathon bombing occurred, neuroscientists at Harvard University were midway through a study on trauma and the adolescent brain. As a result, they say they were able to make some new scientific links between PTSD and media exposure.
April 17, 2014
New Participants in RWJF Health & Society Scholars Program to Study Determinants of Population Health
April 16, 2014 (RWJF) The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health & Society Scholars program is pleased to announce the selection of 12 new scholars who will investigate how connections among biological, genetic, behavioral, social, economic, and environmental conditions impact the population’s health.
March 5, 2014
Elizabeth Rigby (Alumna) Not All Election Reforms Promote Equality
March 4, 2014 (Boston Globe) Wealthy Americans are 65 percent more likely to vote than those with low incomes. What can be done to make voting more equal?
March 5, 2014
Cynthia Colen (Alumna) Is Breast-Feeding Really Better?
March 4, 2014 (New York Times) Researchers at Ohio State University compared 1,773 sibling pairs, one of whom had been breast-fed and one bottle-fed, on 11 measures of health and intellectual competency. The children ranged in age from 4 to 14 years. The study, published online in Social Science & Medicine, found no statistically significant differences between the breast-fed and bottle-fed siblings on any of these measures.
March 4, 2014
Mark Hatzenbuehler (Alumnus) Anti-Gay Communities Linked to Shorter Lives
February 24, 2014 (Reuters) People who are gay, lesbian or bisexual tend to die earlier in communities where citizens are less accepting of same-sex relationships, according to a new study. "The size of the relationship between anti-gay prejudice and mortality was large," Mark Hatzenbuehler told Reuters Health.
February 26, 2014
Mark Hatzenbuehler (Alumnus) Homophobic People Live Shorter Lives
February 21, 2014 (NY Daily News) Researchers from Columbia University found people with antigay attitudes tend to live 2.5 fewer years than their more accepting peers. They attribute the increased mortality rate to higher stress and anger levels that “harboring prejudice produces,” according to the study, published this month in the American Journal of Public Health.