The Office of Behavioral and Social Science Research (OBSSR) archives materials older than three years that are no longer updated. This content is available for historical purposes, and the information and links may have changed over time.
Despite constituting a small fraction of the population, Black men who have sex with men (MSM) constitute almost a quarter of all new HIV infections in the United States. Millett et al. systematically reviewed the literature and found that while indi…
What does it mean to lose your spouse or partner, to become unemployed, or to receive a cancer diagnosis? Such events, commonly referred to as major life stressors, result in a qualitative shift in one’s life circumstances. The consequences of these…
Accompanying hallmark cognitive impairments of symptomatic Alzheimer's disease (AD), mood disorders like depression, apathy, or anxiety are common comorbid conditions. Additionally, mood disorders in symptomatic AD are associated with poorer cognitiv…
Last May, JAMA Oncology published a Harvard analysis of 135,910 participants in publicly available datasets and found that habits and practices accounted for 25% of carcinoma occurrence in women, and 33% among men. These lifestyle behaviors…
While seeing an adolescent smoking may be less common now than it was even a decade ago, the teenage years are a time of experimenting with risky behaviors. Everyone knows the long-term dangers of smoking, but adolescent brains are particularly susce…
In a 2013 NPR interview, Kim Updegrove, president of the Human Milk Banking Association of North America, says: “The practice of internet sharing of human milk is not safe. Sharing a body fluid with all of its potential bacteria and viruses is danger…
For many people in the United States, retirement represents a major life-course transition. Although many life transitions are empirically linked to changes in health—and many iterations of life course theory suggest that retirement should be related…
Nearly every biological system, from genetics to neurology, is susceptible to influence and modification by gender. Men and women are stratified into distinct environments and often have qualitatively different experiences and social or physiological…
Research on health behavior and health policy is focusing increasingly on cultural influences. For example, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s 2015 annual theme was building a culture of health. At the heart of attempts to change cultures of health…
Mobility limitation (i.e., difficulty walking, climbing, or standing) is one of the most common forms of functional impairment among older adults. Mobility limitation is associated with higher rates of death and nursing home admissions as well as inc…
