Penn Population Studies Research Briefs
The Penn Population Studies Research Briefs series includes various types of short research documents that highlight and synthesize the scholarly work of researchers at the Population Studies Center (PSC) and Population Aging Research Center (PARC). In addition, the series includes the joint PARC & Penn Leonard Davis Institute (LDI) Research Briefs.
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Publication Correcting Pessimistic Mortality Beliefs May Reduce Vaccine Hesitancy, Malawi Study Shows(2024-09-11) Purcell, Helene; Ciancio, Alberto; Mwera, James; Delavande, Adeline; Mwapasa, Victor; Kohler, Hans-PeterHelping people accurately understand their risk of dying or surviving may support public health campaigns years later. A new strategy for improving health behavior is supported by a randomized controlled trial from the longrunning Malawi Longitudinal Study of Families and Health (MLSFH) that showed that a 2017 intervention to correct misconceptions about mortality risk was linked to higher COVID-19 vaccination rates five years later. Vaccination was 7.8 percentage points higher in the intervention than the control group. Effects spread to families of intervention participants, whose siblings had higher vaccination rates than the control group.Publication Does Schooling Improve Cognitive Abilities at Older Ages(2023-02-02) Amin, Vikesh; Behrman, Jere R.; Fletcher, Jason M.; Flores, Carlos A.; Flores-Lagunes, Alfonso; Kohler, Hans-PeterAn estimated 11% of U.S. adults aged 65 or older have dementia, and as the population ages, dementia cases are predicted to nearly double from 5.2 million in 2019 to 10.2 million by 2050. Understanding how education levels may affect cognitive decline and presumably dementia is important for projecting future dementia in the population and potentially helping individuals understand and possibly reduce their risk. Prior research has suggested a link between more schooling and better later-life performance on cognitive tests. However, most of these studies provided suggestive associations rather than causal estimates. When prior studies did provide causal estimates, inferences were generally based on changes in educational levels after compulsory schooling laws were enacted. This limited estimated causal effects of schooling to the lower grade levels targeted by the laws and the individuals affected by them. In this study, the authors expanded the evidence about causal effects of schooling on older adults to higher levels of schooling, such as attending college, and to a broader population. The authors applied advanced methods to data from a national, longitudinal cohort study representative of U.S. individuals over age 50.Publication Research Factsheet: Domestic Workers in Philadelphia and Pennsylvania(2019-01-01) Gonalons-Pons, PilarPublication Health Screening for Emerging and Non-Communicable Disease Burdens Among the Global Poor(2021-01-26) Ciancio, Alberto; Kämpfen, Fabrice; Kohler, Hans-Peter; Kohler, Iliana V.Among adults in rural Malawi, population health screening for high blood pressure (BP) led to a 22-percentage point drop in the likelihood of being hypertensive four years later. Individuals with elevated BP received a referral letter upon initial screening; at follow-up, they had lower BP and higher self-reported mental health than individuals with similar BP who were just below the threshold for referral. Population health screenings can reduce the burden of non-communicable diseases in low-income countries.