Motherhood appears to lead to long-lasting increases in gray matter density in the brain, particularly in cognitive and visual areas, which may protect against aging.

7/7 We hope this research inspires new ways to leverage social networks for better health outcomes across Africa. @supsi_ch @OxfordDemSci @NuffieldCollege and Saarland University. Many thanks to @gatesfoundation for the financial support

6/7 Special thank you to the team: Theophilus Aidoo, @ridhikash07, Douglas R. Leasure, and @ingmarweber. A big shoutout to Till Koebe for his outstanding leadership in this project. Your guidance and dedication made this research possible! 👏

5/7 Here is the link:

4/7 These insights carry significant policy implications. Understanding the influence of social connectedness can help in designing and targeting public health campaigns more effectively.

3/7 We found that regions with higher social connectedness are more similar in their knowledge and adoption of contraception and HIV testing, despite existing knowledge gaps. Social capital truly shapes health outcomes!

2/7 We first established the validity of the Social Connectedness Index (SCI) as a proxy for social capital by leveraging the @afrobarometer, a widely used public attitudes survey across Africa.

1/7 Our research highlights the critical role of social capital, measured through Facebook friendship links, in shaping knowledge and behaviors related to sexual and reproductive health across 495 regions in 33 African countries.

Excited to share our latest study published in Social Science & Medicine: “Social capital mediates knowledge gaps in informing sexual and reproductive health behaviours across Africa.”

Enduring maternal brain changes and their role in mediating motherhood’s impact on well-being @rotondivale @ridhikash07 @nicolabarban @sironimaria @carloreve https://t.co/Z9acvIoSK5

The paper is here:

4/4 Thanks to our institutions for the support: @supsi_ch @NuffieldCollege @OxfordDemSci @Unibo @unimib @UniPadova

3/4 Thanks to the beautiful team: @ridhikash07, @sironimaria, @nicolabarban, Carlo Reverberi, and Michele Allegra. Thanks also to all the colleagues and friends who advised us during these five years of work!

2/4 Mothers showed higher gray matter density, especially in frontal and occipital regions, compared to non-mothers, while no changes were observed in fathers. Interestingly, parenthood increased the sense of life’s meaning, but brain changes didn’t mediate this relationship.

1/4 Excited to share our new research in @SciReports! We explored the long-term effects of parenthood on the brain and well-being using data from the #UKBiobank.

Leggetelo: Ne vale la pena! Grazie per la bella compagnia durante le lunghe ore di allattamento @ale_minello e @TNannicini! Edito da @feltrinellied

Crucial and fragile. The study uses behavioral, qualitative and quantitative approaches to shed light on cooperative dynamics in a sample of healthcare and manufacturer workers during the pandemic! Powered by @supsi_ch. Published by @FrontiersIn:

Hi! Our team is currently looking to hire for a short term research assistant position for a field based project in India. I request the interested candidates to kindly go through the attached job advert. @ridhikash07 @sb_vogt #EconTwitter

#PAA2024 is on air. This year, I participate only…remotely! I Life came over once again! If you still want to see some research on #digitalization and #femaleempowerment, look for @ridhikash07 at Friday’s poster session!

Initially est under Regan, every R president has implemented the MCP, and each of these periods had worse health outcomes. From 2017-2021, MCP resulted in 108,000 avoidable deaths and 360,000 new folks acquiring HIV. https://t.co/uAnggg7t0A