Professors Win Grants To Promote Quality of Life

Harvard Medical School professor Nicholas A. Christakis and economics professor David I. Laibson ’88 each received a grant of about $1.5 million from the National Institute on Aging to implement research geared toward enhancing the quality of life.

The five-year Roybal Center grant from the NIA—a part of the National Institutes of Health—seeks to help society acclimatize to an aging population, according to Richard M. Suzman ’64, director of the NIA’s Division of Behavioral and Social Research, which funds the Roybal Centers. Christakis and Laibson will lead two of the four newly designated Centers.

“If you look at the world, within five years there will be more people aged 65 and over than children under five,” said Suzman, calling aging the “crowning glory” of the past century and a half. “What becomes important is that people are living longer, and the extra years of their lives must be financed somehow—so we help people save more, work longer, and be healthier.”

Laibson, whose Roybal Center is based at the National Bureau of Economic Research, said that he will utilize his grant money to focus on the influence of behavior in health. Using a combination of psychology and economics, Laibson said his objective is to encourage successful financial decision-making practices and devise new interventions to improve health outcomes.

Laibson will collaborate with Harvard Kennedy School Professor Brigitte C. Madrian, Yale School of Management Professor James J. Choi ’98, and post-doctoral fellow at the NBER John Beshears ’04. Laibson said his team’s research will work to “[bring] back grandmother’s and grandfather’s advice”—such as getting regular flu shots—to the modern age.

“We work to help people to make better choices by gently pushing them in the right direction. If they aren’t gently nudged, they procrastinate or they get confused,” Laibson said. “It could be something like saving more for retirement, enrolling in a 401K plan, diversifying your portfolio.”

In turn, Christakis’ Roybal Center for Translational Research on Aging will explore the relationship between social networks and health problems, including obesity and cancer. Christakis’ lab director Thomas Keegan said that the research is based upon the premise that knowledge alone is insufficient, and must be translated into action to yield positive change.

Keegan said that the Roybal grant’s appeal lies in its encouragement of translational research—which allows for a more comprehensive, sociological view of health issues—and its ability to directly impact people’s wellbeing.

“This opportunity also gives us a lot of freedom to look at new ideas and collaborate with others who start developing their own lines of research,” Keegan said.