Please mark your calendars for the seventh annual conference of the Society for Longitudinal and Life Course Studies (SLLS).
Although the overall conference theme will focus on multidisciplinary collaboration in longitudinal and lifecourse research this year, we welcome conference submissions from all areas of longitudinal and lifecourse studies. These might include (but are not limited to) physical, psychological, social developmental and ageing processes and functioning within and across lifecourse stages from infancy to old age; methods and findings of cohort studies; other sources of longitudinal data such as panel studies and record linkage; international comparisons; household, and income dynamics; intergenerational transfers and returns to learning; gene-environment interactions; ‘mixed’, and comparative methods; innovative methodology in design, measurement, data management, analysis and research practice (quantitative and qualitative).
Proposals are sought for four kinds of conference presentation:
- A poster presentation for which an abstract of no more than 200 words is required.
- An individual paper for oral presentation for which an abstract of no more than 300 words is required. Papers that do not fit into regular sessions may be allocated as posters.
- A symposium comprising of 3 – 5 papers. Accepted symposia will be allocated a time slot of between 1 – 1.5 hrs. For each symposium we require a summary abstract of no more than 200 words, plus an abstract of no more than 300 words for each paper.
- Post-conference workshop. Duration: either half or full day. Half day workshops can take place on the afternoon of Friday 13 October and on Saturday 14 October 2017. Full day workshops can only take place on Saturday 14 October 2017. An abstract of no more than 300 words is required.
The Population Reference Bureau has extended the application deadline for the 2017-2018 cohort of the U.S. Policy Communication Training Program. The new application deadline is February 13, 2017.
This training program builds on PRB’s 40-year legacy of training researchers to communicate their findings for policy change. The program is designed to develop skills that U.S. researchers need to communicate with U.S. policy audiences, including decision makers and the media. Through the generous support of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), we are able to offer this in-depth policy communication training to U.S. citizens and permanent residents studying demography, population health, and reproductive health in doctoral programs at U.S. academic institutions.
CSDE invites its trainees to submit a project abstract for this quarter’s Trainee Lightning Talks and Poster Session, as part of the CSDE Seminar series “Next Population Science Insights.” Selected trainees will introduce their project via lightning talks and continue the conversation over posters.
This is a great opportunity to showcase your research to an excitingly diverse set of colleagues from across the university, make new connections with scholars working in similar areas, and celebrate your continued development as a strong demographic researcher. CSDE will recognize the best poster with an award. Posters will be assessed based on design, content, and presentation. To submit your concept, fill out the form linked below.
Concept submissions are due by February 9th. The Poster Session itself will take place on March 10th.
The Center for Studies in Demography & Ecology is pleased to announce that it will be co-hosting the first northwest regional conference of the Interdisciplinary Association of Population Health Science (IAPHS).
“From Research Labs to Community and Back Again: Innovative Collaborations that Advance Population Health” will examine how we integrate the science of population health with improvements in population health. This IAPHS regional conference will intentionally bridge the gaps between scientists, health practitioners, policy makers and community members. The conference will highlight projects originating in the Pacific Northwest that have bridged those divides or are on the cusp of doing so.
The IAPHS was founded in 2016 to foster scientific innovation and discovery to improve the health of populations and reduce health disparities. The mission of IAPHS is to provide a forum that will connect population health scientists across disciplines and sectors, advance the development of population health science, and promote its application.
Our keynote speaker is Sandro Galea (MD, MPH, Dr. P.H.) Dean and Professor at the Boston University School of Public Health. Dr. Galea is also the first president of the IAPHS and will offer his vision for population health science in the coming decades.
Mark you calendars for May 26 and look for updates.
Dan Eisenberg, CSDE Affiliate and assistant professor of Anthropology at UW, recently published a study examining DNA telomere length in relation to early childhood illnesses and breastfeeding. The study, compiled in the American Journal of Human Biology, found that telomeres–“caps” on chromosomes–are shorter in adults with sickly childhoods but are unaffected by breastfeeding practices. Telomeres are important factors in the body’s ability to combat disease later in life, making the findings particularly relevant for public health. Eisenberg notes that further study is needed to determine whether shorter telomeres are the cause or the result of early sickness.
Do Recent Declines in U.S. Life Expectancy Signal Bad News for Healthy Life Expectancy?
Life expectancy for non-Hispanic white (henceforth white) Americans with less than high school education has fallen in recent years—particularly for women – while life expectancy has increased substantially for the college educated population. However, the extent to which the declines/increases in life expectancy translate into healthy life expectancy remains unclear.
Mark Hayward and his team combine data from the Health and Retirement Study and U.S. Vital Statistics, using the Sullivan method, to decompose the change in total life expectancy (TLE) to healthy life expectancy (HLE) and disabled life expectancy (DLE) between 2000 and 2010, specific to gender and education groups. They measured disabled life expectancy using both severe (ADL) and less severe (IADL) disability prevalence. Consistent with previous research, they find a modest downward/stable TLE change in the US is concentrated at the bottom end of the education distribution for whites and at ages prior to age 65. Although there was little change in TLE, substantial gains in DLE and losses in HLE were observed, due to the increased rates of disability (especially ADL disability) before age 70. Among the college educated, TLE increased substantially during the decade, especially among males. HLE also increased over the decade, with much of the increase from declining mortality after age 70. Much of the improvement in HLE from mortality was offset by a rise in IADL disability.
The demographic factors influencing HLE shifted from younger ages to advanced ages with higher levels of educational attainment. The findings show that focusing exclusively on the declines in life expectancy, and external causes of death, obfuscates a more dynamic decline in health among whites with low levels of education and significant improvements in health among highly educated persons.
To schedule a meeting with Dr. Hayward, click here.
This talk will present a mixed methods approach to elicit and rank attributes of child health concerns that may worry parents of 6 to 12 year old children. First, focus groups were conducted with parents (n = 17) to identify factors that influence parental concern about child health and motivate parents to seek care from a health provider or engage in preventive behaviors. Focus group themes, a review of the literature, and expert opinion were synthesized to identify 13 relevant attributes of health concerns a child may face in the future. The survey was piloted with U.S. parents (n = 71). Parents were asked to complete a best-worst scaling (BWS) exercise, an alternative to category rating scales. Respondents were repeatedly asked to select which of a set of four attributes would worry them the least and which would worry them the most. The most and least concerning attributes were assessed first using best-worst scores (spanning -4 to 4) representing the number of times each attribute was designated as least or most worrying and secondly using a conditional logit model.
This talk will introduce the concept of best-worst scaling, discuss advantages of the use of best minus worst scores vs. logistic regression models for analysis, and discuss potential applications in the social sciences.
California State University, Sacramento, will seek two tenure-track Assistant Professor positions, Position #1 for Health & Aging and Practice, and Position #2 for Practice and Policy, beginning Fall Semester, 2017. The candidate for Position #1 is expected to teach Health & Aging courses and Practice courses; the candidate for Position #2 is expected to teach Practice courses and Policy courses. The candidate must be able to undertake appropriate scholarly activity, work in a collegial environment, and advise students. The successful candidate is also expected to be capable of supervising undergraduate and graduate field placements, as well as student research. Positions also include committee work at the division, college, and university levels and engagement in community service.
Moreno Valley College is seeking outstanding candidates for the position of Assistant Professor, Sociology. The successful candidate will be responsible for lecture and/or laboratory instruction in lower division sociology courses, which include introductory courses, contemporary social problems, sociological research methods, and race and ethnicity. The assignment may also include other courses in the discipline.
This workshop offers an introduction to the statistical programming language Stata, meeting two consecutive Tuesdays (Jan 24 and Jan 31) from 4 pm to 6 pm. It assumes no prior experience with Stata but does assume familiarity with basic statistical concepts. Contact Anita Rocha for more information.