Elaine Hernandez, a PhD research candidate at University of Texas at Austin Population Center, describes the relationship between educational attainment and adult mortality in the United States. This finding is from a paper she co-authored, The Effect of Educational Attainment on Adult Mortality in the United States.

Linking Educational Attainment to Adult Mortality and Life Expectancy

Dr. Robert Hummer of the Population Research Center and Department of Sociology at University of Texas, Austin, examines the difference in life expectancy based on education attainment. These findings are from a paper he co-authored, The Effect of Educational Attainment on Adult Mortality in the United States.

Remaining Years of Life for U.S. Adults  at Age 25 by Educational Attainment, 2005

Dr. Robert Hummer of the Population Research Center and Department of Sociology at University of Texas, Austin, outlines the key findings from a paper he co-authored, The Effect of Educational Attainment on Adult Mortality in the United States.

Educational Attainment and Mortality for U.S. Adults

Family planning and reproductive health is an important, and often overlooked, component of poverty reduction. To study this connection further, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation supported the creation of the PopPov Research Network, a group of academic researchers and funders that examine how population issues affect economic well-being. In this interview, Sara Seims, program director of the Population Program at the Hewlett Foundation, discusses the PopPov Network, ongoing research on population and poverty, links between family planning and poverty reduction, and how this research will be used in poverty reduction programs and policy.

Connecting Population Research to Poverty Reduction

A wide range of antipoverty programs have been in place in the United States for decades, and millions of Americans depend on them. How effective have these programs been? Are they wasteful or efficient? Who do they reach? In this interview, Robert Moffitt, the Krieger-Eisenhower professor of economics at Johns Hopkins University, discusses the various types of U.S. antipoverty programs and policies and how the current recession will affect these programs. 

Assessing the Impact of U.S. Antipoverty Programs

Susan Cutter is a distinguished professor of geography at the University of South Carolina where she directs the Hazards and Vulnerability Research Institute. Cutter researches what makes people and the places where they live vulnerable to extreme events such as hurricanes or tornadoes, and how vulnerability and resilience are measured, monitored, and assessed. In this interview, Cutter discusses disaster vulnerability and resilience, how these are measured, and how their measurement helps inform disaster preparedness and recovery. 

Social Vulnerability and Resilience to Natural Disasters

Kakenya Ntaiya was born in a rural village in southern Kenya, one of eight children. When she was 5 years old, her parents arranged an engagement to a local boy. She was to be circumcised before becoming a teenager to signify the end of her education and the start of married life. Kakenya is now finishing her Ph.D. in education and has traveled around the world to speak on the importance of educating girls, particularly as a means to fight the practices of female genital mutilation and child marriage. In this interview, Ntaiya discusses the opportunities that come with education for girls in her community, the effects of early marriage on girls' livelihoods, and how the practice of FGM/C has changed in Kenya.

Providing Opportunities for Girls Through Education and Combating FGM/C in Rural Kenya

Nafis Sadik has had an unequaled international career as a champion of women's reproductive health and rights. Sadik joined the United Nations in 1971 and served from 1987 to 2000 as the executive director for UNFPA, becoming the first woman to head one of the United Nations' major agencies. Since 2001, she has served as the Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Asia and the Pacific for the UN Secretary General. Sadik talked with PRB as part of PRB's celebration of the 100th Anniversary of International Women's Day, and discussed the accomplishments and unfinished work for women she has witnessed in her career, how HIV/AIDS affects women, the importance of mentors and parental support in her life, and how reproductive health is crucial to women's rights and well-being. 

Commemorating International Women's Day

According to PRB's new Policy Brief, Who Speaks for Me? Ending Child Marriage, 1 out of 9 girls have been forced into marriage between the ages of 10 and 14 in developing countries. With limited education and economic opportunities, child brides are often condemned to a life of poverty, social isolation, and powerlessness. In this interview, the Honorable Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland, chair of the Aspen Institute’s Global Leaders Council for Reproductive Health, and member of The Elders, talks about why child marriage violates human rights and how the practice can be addressed and changed. 

Ending Child Marriage: Mary Robinson, Former President of Ireland and Member of the Elders

Dr. Alan Garber is the Henry J. Kaiser Jr. Professor at Stanford University, where he is also a professor of Medicine, of Economics, Health Research and Policy, and of Economics in the Graduate School of Business. In this interview, Garber discusses cost-effectiveness research and its importance to health care reform.


Cost-Effectiveness Research and Health Care Reform: Interview With Alan Garber, Stanford University

The 2004 hurricane season was the worst in Florida's history. Four hurricanes caused $45 billion in damages and widespread population displacement. About 1.6 million people evacuated their homes. Based on sample surveys with 11,000 residents in heavily hit areas, Stanley Smith, professor of economics and the director of the Bureau of Economic and Business Research (BEBR) at the University of Florida, has found new results on how the hurricanes affected communities, the demographic impact of evacuation, and what lessons these effects have for future disaster relief. In this interview, Smith discusses the demographic impact of the damaging 2004 Florida hurricanes, the ensuing evacuations, and how these effects compare with Hurricane Katrina, along with recommendations for future disaster and evacuation preparedness. 

Demographic Impacts and Response to the 2004 Florida Hurricanes: Stanley Smith, Uni. of Florida

Kate Gilles, a policy analyst at PRB, interviewed Cate Lane, youth adviser for USAID’s Bureau of Global Health, Division of Service Delivery Improvement in the Office of Population and Reproductive Health, about why adolescent health is a key development issue and some of the challenges to getting adolescents and adolescent health on global agendas. Young people under the age of 30 make up over half of the global population, and it is becoming clear that sustainable growth and development will require involving young people, addressing their needs and supporting positive development opportunities. As we mark the 20th anniversary of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo and the introduction of the Sustainable Development Goals in 2015, this is an opportunity to ensure that young people are accounted for and involved in global health and development agendas moving forward. Lane talks about taking a more holistic and integrated approach to adolescent health, USAID’s work on youth issues, and ways to more meaningfully engage young people.

To learn more about PRB, visit our website at www.prb.org.


Examining Adolescent Health in International Development with Cate Lane, Youth Advisor, USAID

At the 2013 PopPov Conference in Oslo, Norway, PRB staff interviewed Jan Monteverde Haakonsen, special adviser in the Department of Cooperation and Development Research at the Research Council of Norway (RCN) about RCN’s role in the PopPov research initiative.

In the interview, Haakonsen outlines the structure of RCN, and explains that the council acts as an independent adviser to the Norwegian government on research matters. ECONPOP, RCN’s funding scheme under the PopPov initiative, has supported six research projects, and has a total budget of approximately NOK 25 million, or $USD 4.3 million. Research has focused primarily on the role of gender as it relates to reproductive health and demographic issues.

Haakonsen highlights the fact that the ECONPOP research initiative is the first one within RCN that explicitly looks at the relationships between population dynamics, economic development, poverty, and reproductive health. In that sense, the Hewlett Foundation’s PopPov initiative has had an important impact on this line of research in Norway. Haakonsen hopes that the initiative will act as a catalyst for increasing interest in these issues within the Norwegian research community.

Jan Monteverde Haakonsen on RCN's ECONPOP

At the 2014 PopPov Conference in Nairobi, Kenya, Susan Rich, vice president of International Programs at the Population Reference Bureau, interviewed Jotham Musinguzi, regional director of the Partners in Population and Development Africa Regional Office.
 
Having attended seven PopPov research meetings, Musinguzi shares his perspective on findings that have emerged from the PopPov initiative and the role of researchers in communicating their findings to policymakers. He specifically discusses the demographic dividend and emphasizes the importance of dialogue between researchers and policymakers, ideally when the research project is conceptualized.

Jotham Musinguzi Interview With Susan Rich on the PopPov Initiative

Kate Belohlav, research associate at PRB, interviewed professor Véronique Filippi about her research on severe obstetric complications in Burkina Faso. Filippi and her research team from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), University of Oslo, and AfricSanté followed women who had experienced near-fatal (“near-miss”) complications during childbirth up to four years after delivery, and documented the socioeconomic and health consequences of having a complicated childbirth.

They found that both the women and their children had an increased risk of death as compared to women who had not experienced near-miss complications, which suggests that this group of women would benefit from being identified early and followed closely through postpartum services. The research team also learned that women who had near-miss complications experienced financial hardships—lending support to the policy in Burkina Faso, which reduces user fees around the time of delivery in order to lessen the financial burden experienced by these women.

Filippi is a Senior Lecturer in Maternal Health and Epidemiology at LSHTM. She conducts most of her research in African countries and is currently involved in a range of projects, including studies on obstetric complications, user fees, and cost effectiveness of interventions to reduce maternal deaths from unwanted pregnancies, among others.

Véronique Filippi on Severe Obstetric Complications in Burkina Faso

The Global Life (PRB theme song)

Some countries have found that the path to economic growth and development is enhanced by providing family planning together with maternal and child health care—the health services women seek before, during, and after pregnancy, and for their children's health. Offering these services together is a cost-effective way to prevent unintended pregnancies among women, and contributes to a healthier population. 
In this interview, Debbie Bain Brickley, senior researcher at the University of California San Francisco discusses integrating Family Planning services with Maternal and child health care. Brickley is a member of the Cochrane HIV/AIDS group, Global Health Sciences. The group has conducted a  systematic review of research and evidence on family planning and maternal child health integration, funded by USAID . 


Integrating Family Planning and Maternal Child Health Services: Interview With Debbie Bain Brickley

In an effort to harness the energy, imagination, and initiative of the world’s youth in overcoming the challenges facing humankind, the United Nations proclaimed an International Year of Youth starting on Aug. 12, 2010. To commemorate the close of the Year of Youth, PRB has produced a series of web articles, presentations, and graphics that highlight the reproductive health challenges facing youth around the world. In this interview, Cate Lane, Youth Advisor at USAID, discusses the importance of involving youth in development programming. Given that reproductive health constitutes a key component of a healthy transition to adulthood, USAID works to improve the reproductive health and HIV/AIDS knowledge and behaviors of youth. To encourage sustainability, USAID also supports community involvement and capacity building with young people so they can take action in the development of their societies.


Involving Youth in Development Programming: Interview With Cate Lane, USAID

A lot of attention is given to infectious diseases in developing countries such as malaria, measles, HIV/AIDS and more, but noncommunicable diseases, or NCDs, are becoming increasingly prevalent in developing countries as people move to cities, incomes rise, and lifestyles change. NCDs are diseases of long duration and generally slow progression. They include heart disease, stroke, cancer, asthma, diabetes, and more. Often referred to as "chronic diseases", NCDs are distinguished by their non-infectious cause. In this interview, PRB president Wendy Baldwin discusses how NCDs affect youth and the challenges for burdened health systems to address infectious diseases and NCDs. 


Noncommunicable Diseases and Youth in Developing Countries: Interview With Wendy Baldwin, PRB

Demographer Carl Haub explains how India will soon pass China to become the world's most populous country.

How is India Passing China in Population? (Demographer Carl Haub)

Demographer Carl Haub explains what sex ratios are and how there are more males than females in India. 

Sex Ratios in India (Demographer Carl Haub)

NPR Coverage of PRB Aging Report (Clip 1 of 2)

NPR Coverage of PRB Aging Report (Clip 2 of 2)

The more social ties people have at an early age, the better their health in young adulthood and old age, according to a 2016 study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Their study was the first to definitively link social connections with specific health measures such as abdominal obesity, inflammation, and high blood pressure—all of which increase the risk of disease, including heart disease, stroke, and cancer.

Having Friends, Socializing as Important to Good Health as Diet, Exercise

The International Conference on Family Planning in Dakar, Senegal in November 2011 brought together over 2,000 researchers and advocates dedicated to improving the lives of women and families through reproductive health, with the ultimate goal of universal access to family planning.

Sarah Boseley, health editor at the Guardian was there catching up on the latest research and meeting local women around Dakar who now have access to family planning services and discovering how this has changed their lives.

Boseley has won a number of awards for her work on HIV/AIDA in Africa, including the One World Media Award (twice) and the European section of the Lorenzo Natali prize, awarded by the European Commission. Her work is available at www.guardian.co.uk/profile/sarahboseley. 


Views From the International Conference on Family Planning: Sarah Boseley, The Guardian

Mia Foreman sat down with Janet Meyers, the Deputy Director of Health Policy and Practice and International Medical Corps, to talk about the importance of reproductive healthcare during humanitarian crises. Janet has worked in the industry for over a decade and here she describes the challenges organizations face, recent advancements, and why reproductive health should be integrated into all disaster relief efforts. 

Reproductive Health in Humanitarian Crisis

Marlene Lee, program director of Academic Research and Relations at PRB, interviewed Professor Laura Carstensen about her research on the "positivity effect." This effect is an age-related preference for positive information over negative information. The effect was identified by testing the hypothesis that goals change as people grow older, and emotionally meaningful goals take precedence over such things as information-seeking. The brain operates in the service of goals and attention is directed to goals that are emotional and positive.

Carstensen is a professor of public policy and psychology at Stanford University, and a noted expert on cognitive aging and emotion. She is the founding director of the Stanford Center on Longevity. For more than 20 years, her research has been supported by the National Institute on Aging.

As a person ages, "goals related to the positive in life are chronically activated—you notice that the sun is shining as opposed to the headline in the newspaper that speaks to the horrific events in Syria," Carstensen explained. She noted that younger people are drawn to the opposite—negative information over positive information.


The "positivity effect": An Interview with Dr. Laura Carstensen

The Population Reference Bureau informs people around the world about population, health, and the environment, and empowers them to use that information to advance the well-being of current and future generations.

Inform. PRB analyzes complex demographic data and research to provide the most objective, accurate, and up-to-date population information in a format that is easily understood by advocates, journalists, and decisionmakers alike. 

Empower. Our commitment to putting information into action sets us apart. PRB builds coalitions and conducts workshops around the world to give our key audiences the tools they need to understand and communicate effectively about population issues.

Advance. PRB works to ensure that policymakers in developing countries and in the United States rely on sound evidence, rather than anecdotal or outdated information, when creating population, health, and environmental policies. 

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