News by Subject Social & Behavior

More and more private banks are offering sustainable investment options to wealthy clients. How do these products differ from one another? And do the banks' advisory services meet the expectations of investors? A study by the University of Zurich into the products and services of the 15 leading European private banks shows that most still have room for improvement.

Smartphones and laptops seem ubiquitous at US universities, but there is still a 'digital divide,' with some students less likely than others to have consistent access to reliable technology, according to a study co-authored by an Indiana University sociologist.

Many European countries prevent asylum seekers from working for a certain waiting period after arrival. These policies can considerably slow their integration years later. Five years after Germany introduced a shorter waiting period in 2000, employment rates were 20 percent lower for refugees who, under the previous policy, had to wait an additional 7 months before entering the labor market. It took this group 10 years to close the gap in employment rates.

A program established by the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard is addressing the persistently elevated risk of HIV infection among young women in South Africa from two angles -- first, investigating biological factors that modulate infection risk and the early immunologic events following viral exposure, and second, alleviating the socioeconomic factors that limit opportunities for young women, the group at greatest risk in the region hit hardest by the HIV epidemic.

Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act does not appear to have reduced disparities in the use of regionalized surgical care among vulnerable persons.

People in wealthy countries are less concerned about the reliability, vulnerability and affordability of their energy supplies, a new study has shown.

Health care organizations can play a key role in supporting unemployed patients find a job, suggests a new study from the Centre for Urban Health Solutions (C-UHS) of St. Michael's Hospital.

High poverty rates, low education and lack of insurance are all social determinants that are expected to lead to high mortality rates and negative health outcomes. Despite a 62 percent minority population with these characteristics in California, the state's health profile was significantly better than the nation's as a whole. This profile was largely driven by the state's minority population.

A housing subsidy treatment that enables low-income families in US cities to move from public to private housing appears to reduce adolescent girls' binge drinking but increase adolescent boys' binge drinking. The reasons for these differential gender effects are not yet clear.