Featured series 
Tag: Harvard School of Public Health
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Campus & Community
Warnings about fish consumption and mercury overstated
A comparison of the risks and benefits of fish consumption suggests that government advisories warning women of childbearing age about mercury exposure should be issued with caution. The study warns that if advisories cause people to eat less fish out of fear about the effects of mercury, substantial nutritional benefits could be lost. The study…
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Health
Study finds vaccines boost the economies of poor countries
A study determined that previous measurements of the benefits of immunization have generally underestimated their economic value by focusing solely on health-related impacts such as averted illnesses, hospitalizations, deaths, disability, and medical costs. The study provides a more thorough investigation of the impacts of vaccination by looking at its effects on cognitive development, educational attainment,…
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Campus & Community
Holding their breath for the breathless
Two researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) got the idea of studying free divers to get information that would help them help the breathless to breathe better. “We hope that by studying these athletes, we can teach patients how to better cope and recover from episodes of breathlessness,” says Andrew Binks. Divers…
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Health
Child early intervention programs make for healthier adults
The Brookline Early Education Program (BEEP), a community- based child health and development program, was initiated by the Brookline Public Schools and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and ran from 1972-1979. Enrollment was open to families in Brookline, Mass., and to some urban families in neighboring Boston. The program provided health, educational, and social services…
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Campus & Community
HSPH joins battle over America’s waistline
The Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) weighed in on the battle over America’s bulging middle Thursday (May 26), with a panel of health experts saying a government study showing that being somewhat overweight may actually save lives is flawed and sends a dangerous message. The event, “Weighing the Evidence: A Forum to Examine the…
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Science & Tech
Witnessing gun violence significantly increases the likelihood that a child will also commit violent crimes
“Based on this study’s results, showing the importance of personal contact with violence, the best model for violence may be that of a socially infectious disease,” says Felton Earls, MD, HMS professor of social medicine and principal investigator of the study. The study, a project that included interviews of children and teenagers from Chicago neighborhoods,…
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Health
Imaging may not be major driver of hospital cost increases
“There have been several news stories and reports from insurers claiming that imaging costs are catching and even surpassing drug costs as major drivers of health care inflation,” says Scott Gazelle, M.D., MPH, Ph.D., and an MGH radiologist who is director of the Institute for Technology Assessment. “Those of us who work in imaging believe…
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Health
TB gene identified
As many as one out of three people in the world are infected with the bacteria that causes tuberculosis, public health experts estimate. That could lead to a global plague were it not for the fact that only one out of 10 infected people actually develops the disease. Still, TB is a major global health…
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Campus & Community
Social determinants key in who gets good care
Kerala is one of the poorer states in India, and yet it enjoys India’s highest life expectancy and lowest infant mortality rates. This seeming anomaly has caused many to wonder what Kerala is doing right. Dan Brock thinks the answer may be found through work on the social determinants of health. “The principal explanation is…
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Health
Study finds men who consume more dairy products have lower incidence of diabetes
A report from researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) – the first large-scale, prospective examination of a relationship between dairy intake and diabetes risk – analyzes data from the HSPH-based Health Professionals Follow-up Study. “Our study found that men consuming higher levels of…
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Health
Low-fat dairy foods may help reduce risk of type 2 diabetes
“Our study found that men consuming higher levels of dairy products, especially low-fat dairy foods, had a significantly lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes during a 12-year period,” says Hyon Choi, M.D., Dr.PH, director of Outcomes Research in the MGH Rheumatology Unit and the paper’s lead author. Recent research has implied that dairy foods…
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Campus & Community
Harvard examining geospatial analysis technology programs
n Moshi, Tanzania, hard-hit by AIDS, researchers are using detailed aerial photographs and global positioning system receivers to locate study subjects in a maze of houses without addresses and streets without names. The project, a health program for children, families, and communities within Moshi by Harvard Medical School’s Children’s Health and Social Ecology (CHASE) program,…
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Health
Routine HIV screening recommended for most
Researchers at Harvard, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Yale University have shown that routine screening for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, could increase survival, prevent transmission of the disease, and be done at reasonable cost. The study was prompted in part by the fact that despite current recommendations of HIV screening in high-risk populations, roughly…
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Health
Stronger evidence found linking Epstein-Barr virus and risk of multiple sclerosis
Researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health, Kaiser Permanente, and a team of collaborators have found further evidence implicating the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) as a possible contributory cause to multiple sclerosis. The study appears in the advance online edition of the June 2006 issue of Archives of Neurology. MS is a chronic degenerative disease…
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Campus & Community
People live longer at higher altitudes
The high life is a healthy life, at least in Greece. Residents of a village at an altitude of 3,100 feet suffered fewer heart attacks and lived longer than people in two nearby lowland areas, researchers from Harvard and the University of Athens found. Their study followed 1,198 men and women for l5 years. Although…
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Campus & Community
Benefits of clean fuel in Africa would be enormous
A study by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, and the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), finds that promoting cleaner, more efficient technologies for producing charcoal in Africa can save millions of lives and have significant climate change and development benefits. The findings appear in the April 1 issue of the journal Science.…
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Campus & Community
MTV, Harvard study reveals adolescent disconnect
When it comes to the knowledge that loud noise may result in hearing loss and that hearing protection can help, the MTV generation suffers a definite disconnect, according to the results of a novel Web-based survey designed by researchers from the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary (MEEI), Harvard Medical School (HMS), and the Harvard School…
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Health
Spread of common day care illnesses caused by misconceptions about illness transmission
A Harvard Medical School study found that only two-thirds of parents believed that contact transmission was important for the spread of colds, and fewer than half believed it was important in the spread of stomach flus. Perhaps more surprising, fewer than half stated that changing a diaper and eating food prepared by a person with…
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Health
Low-dose aspirin shown to reduce risk of first stroke in women
The Women’s Health Study is a large, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial funded by both the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and the National Cancer Institute to evaluate the benefits and risks of low dose aspirin as well as vitamin E supplementation in the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease. The trial included healthy women 45…
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Health
MTV, Harvard Web study reveals adolescent disconnect: Unaware of hearing peril, yet willing to listen
While many adolescents and young adults expose themselves to loud music for entertainment, the researchers hypothesized that these individuals might not be aware that over-exposure could result in hearing loss. To find out, a survey was designed by the researchers and posted by the MTV Web site for three days. The survey included questions about…
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Health
New findings about protection against pneumococcal disease
Before the advent of the pneumococcal vaccine, known as Prevnar, S. pneumoniae caused millions of ear infections each year, half a million episodes of bacterial pneumonia, and life- threatening cases of meningitis and bacteremia. Prevnar triggers recipients’ immune systems to produce “anticapsular antibodies.” However, Prevnar doesn’t work well in the developing world, and it is…
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Campus & Community
Simple test predicts heart attack
White cell counts can be easily measured by inexpensive, widely available tests, raising the possibility of lowering the toll of heart disease fatalities, the leading cause of death among women in the United States. “For years, researchers have suspected a link between elevated white blood cell count and heart attack,” notes JoAnn Manson, one of…
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Health
Largest twin study of age-related macular degeneration finds genetics and environment play large role in disease
Researchers led by Johanna M. Seddon, M.D., at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health conducted the largest study of twins of its kind. Analyses of twins showed that genetic factors play a substantial role in the etiology of AMD and associated macular characteristics, explaining 46 percent…
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Campus & Community
Physical activity linked to protection from Parkinson’s disease
In the first comprehensive examination of strenuous physical activity and the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease, researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) have found that men who exercised regularly and vigorously early in their adult life had a lower risk for developing Parkinson’s disease compared with men who did not. The findings…
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Health
Safer cigarettes would cut fire deaths if made available
Researchers at Harvard School of Public Health, funded by the American Legacy Foundation, compared the physical properties of cigarettes sold in New York with cigarettes of the same brands sold in Massachusetts and California. The researchers found: • That while not perfectly self-extinguishing, New York cigarettes were far less likely to burn to the end…
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Health
One alcoholic drink per day improves cognitive function among older women
According to the study’s senior author, BWH’s Francine Grodstein, Sc.D., “Much evidence has demonstrated the heart benefits of light alcohol drinking, but less research has focused on cognitive functioning. While we all continue to recommend exercising caution when consuming any type of alcohol, our study suggests that moderate consumption might provide older women some cognitive…
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Health
Monitoring system needed to prevent safety hazard of problem physicians
Asserting that “physician performance failures are not rare and pose substantial threats to patient welfare and safety,” experts in medical error are calling on state medical boards and healthcare organizations to institute a formal monitoring and prevention system for catching “problem doctors” before they do further harm. Research has shown that “the vast majority of…