Continuous skin-to-skin contact with their mothers during the first days of life may reduce low birth weight infant deaths by more than one-third compared to conventional care, according to a new meta-analysis by researchers from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Boston Children’s Hospital. The meta-analysis combined studies which examined the effect of…

A new study by researchers from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and colleagues describes the pre-clinical development of a therapeutic that could potentially be used to treat type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease, and other metabolic diseases. The researchers developed an antibody that improves glucose regulation and reduces fatty liver in obese mice…

A new study has found that health care costs for those with private insurance varies wildly across the U.S.—and that much of the variation has do with how much market power is held by local hospitals. While most previous studies have analyzed health care costs using data from government insurance programs, especially Medicare, the new…

Prohibiting runway models from participating in fashion shows or photo shoots if they are dangerously thin would go a long way toward preventing serious health problems among young women—including anorexia nervosa and death from starvation—according to experts from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. In an editorial that will be published online December 21,…

Continuous skin-to-skin contact with their mothers during the first days of life may reduce low birth weight infant deaths by more than one-third compared to conventional care, according to a new meta-analysis by researchers from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Boston Children’s Hospital. The meta-analysis combined studies which examined the effect of…

In India, nearly 40% of all children are stunted—of extremely low height for their age—and nearly 30% are underweight. A new study from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health has now pinpointed the five top risk factors responsible for more than two-thirds of the problem. The study—the first to comprehensively analyze and estimate the…

The State Copyright Resource Center, a site recently launched by the Office for Scholarly Communication, aims to clarify the ambiguity around the copyright status of state-produced works. This project was spun out of a query to Harvard Library’s copyright adviser, Kyle K. Courtney, from the Frances Loeb Library at the Graduate School of Design, which was…

As an undergraduate at McGill University in Montreal, Anvita Kulkarni had a passion for social justice and health equity. Two years ago, she stumbled across an online course, “Health and Society,” taught by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Professor Ichiro Kawachi on HarvardX. The course framed these issues through a public health lens,…

Germs, mosquitoes, and other disease carrying bugs that normally are killed by cold weather are thriving in parts of the world that are warmer due to climate change, according to Francesca Dominici, professor of biostatistics and senior associate dean for research at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. “Insect-borne diseases like dengue fever and…

The bacteria that cause tuberculosis are experts at survival, allowing the disease to persist even when faced with the immune system and drugs. Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health’s Sarah Fortune is on a mission to figure out why. December 14, 2015 — Of all the health problems that dominate our thoughts and anxieties, tuberculosis…

Although no reliable official data currently exist on the number of law enforcement-related deaths each year in the U.S., counting these deaths can and should be done because the data constitute crucial public health information that could help prevent future deaths, according to a new study from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The…

Based on four key times around childbirth when maternal and newborn deaths are most likely to occur, the World Health Organization (WHO) has developed an easy-to-use bedside tool—the Safe Childbirth Checklist—to help avoid health crises. The checklist was developed in partnership with Ariadne Labs, a joint center of Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health…

“The sky is the limit.” The familiar words of encouragement, spoken on the occasion of the Tazuko Ajiro Monane Award and Noma-Reischauer Prize Ceremony, personified this year’s recipients. The annual event, held December 4, honored four students for their exceptional achievements in fields related to the study of Japan. The ceremony is organized by the…

In recognition of his ambitious, fearless reporting, Nieman Fellows in the class of 2016 at Harvard have selected Chinese journalist and author Yang Jisheng for the Louis M. Lyons Award for Conscience and Integrity in Journalism. Yang’s groundbreaking book “Tombstone: The Great Chinese Famine 1958-1962” documents in forensic detail the true scale of one of…

A new poll by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and STAT finds that most Americans support government action to keep down the prices of brand-name prescription drugs. The poll found broad support across party lines for letting Medicare (the federal health insurance program for older and disabled Americans) negotiate drug prices for program…

In spite of recent news reports suggesting that foods high in saturated fat—like butter and red meat—really aren’t that bad for you, experts from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health disagree. They say it’s still best to replace saturated fats with foods rich in unsaturated fats such as seafood, nuts, and olive oil. “Saturated…

Adams University Research Professor Christoph Wolff has been elected to Germany’s Orden Pour le Mérite für Wissenschaften und Künste, joining 14 Nobel laureates and other international leaders in the arts and sciences in the historic honor society. Past members have included Darwin, Einstein, T.S. Eliot, Longfellow, Mendelssohn, Rossini, Brahms, and Verdi. In 1860, Louis Agassiz,…

Paige Williams, senior lecturer on biostatistics at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, studies the health and development of children whose HIV-infected mothers took antiretroviral (ARV) drugs during pregnancy. In a study published last year, you found that the overall risk of birth defects was low for women taking ARVs during early pregnancy —…

The most commonly performed operation in the world is cesarean section, and rates of cesarean childbirth delivery vary widely from country to country, from as few as 2 percent to more than 50 percent of live births. The World Health Organization recommends countries not exceed 10 to 15 percent (10 to 15 C-section deliveries per…

Air pollution is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease, and some people may be more susceptible to its effects than others. Investigators from Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) and Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health used data from a nationwide study of nurses to look for factors that made people more vulnerable…

Last week, Chinese and British scientists reported finding a strain of E. coli resistant to a last-resort antibiotic called colistin — and that this resistance can be transferred to other bacteria. Harvard Chan School’s William Hanage, an infectious disease epidemiologist, discusses the growing problem of drug-resistant infections. What is causing the increase in drug-resistant infections?…

The Afro-Latin American Research Institute at the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University will host on December 4-5 the symposium “Afrodescendants: Fifteen Years after Santiago. Achievements and Challenges,” where activists from the Afrodescendant movement in Latin America, agency representatives, government officials, and scholars reflect on the antiracist agenda formulated at…

A group of students at Harvard Divinity School has organized an interfaith service for World  AIDS Day titled “Beloved Community, Beloved Work, Moving Forward in Life.” The service will be hosted by the Natural Dharma Center at 5 Longfellow Park in Cambridge, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., on Tuesday, December 1. Rod Owens, a teacher…

A diverse, international group of academic, civil society, and private sector partners, including the Global Network of Internet and Society Research Centers (NoC), is excited to announce the formation of the Digital Asia Hub, an independent nonprofit Internet and society research think tank based in Hong Kong. Incubated by the Berkman Center for Internet &…

More than 18 million women in low- and middle-income countries around the world are severely undernourished, according to the first global estimate published in a new study from St. Michael’s Hospital and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. These women tend to be the poorest and least educated members of society and comprise a…

What led rival youth militia leaders to come together as peacebuilding partners? How do you negotiate peace when religious identities are at stake? What are Muslim experiences of conflict and peace and how do they mirror those of other communities? These are difficult questions with complex answers, but they highlight how Harvard Divinity School is…

Nancy Gertner, a former U.S. federal judge and senior lecturer at Harvard Law School, was the featured speaker who joined a panel of social activists this fall to discuss lessons learned from the civil rights and women’s movements of the 1970s. With input from Gertner, the panelists—including Arline Isaacson, Judy Norsigian, and Toni Troop, all…

On Nov. 13, the Public Service Recruiting Day expanded in its second year of providing Harvard College seniors with pathways into postgraduate opportunities in the public interest sector. Public Service Recruiting Day has proven to be an innovative effort by inviting leading public service organizations to campus to interview students in a structured manner. This…

World-renowned chemist and professor Daniel Nocera, the Patterson Rookwood Professor of Energy at Harvard University, has won the 2015 Leigh Ann Conn Prize for Renewable Energy from the University of Louisville, which recognizes outstanding renewable energy ideas and achievements with proven global impact. Nocera is recognized for two innovations that address the storage of energy until needed, the most critical…

Karestan Koenen, professor of psychiatric epidemiology at Harvard Chan School, is an expert on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a psychological reaction that occurs after a high-stress event and includes symptoms such as depression, anxiety, and flashbacks. Here, Koenen discusses PTSD among victims of sexual violence—and how to address the problem. Usually we hear about PTSD…