Sam Harper
Biographic Data
| ID | 80256 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Sam Harper |
| GIVEN NAMES | Sam |
| FAMILY NAME | Harper |
| SIGNATURE | HARPER S |
| AFFILIATIONS | McGill University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-1590-2387 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 76 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 256 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 76 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2003 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 9 |
Tracking Change in Rock Art Vocabularies and Styles at Marapikurrinya (Port Hedland, Northwest Australia)
Track engravings dominate the rock art assemblage across Marapikurrinya (Port Hedland) in Northwest Australia, with social change through time linked to changes in how and when this graphic vocabulary is employed. Discrete styles have been identified within the broader engraving body, which is argued to have been produced semi-continuously over the last 7000 years, from the point of sea-level stabilisation in this region. It is proposed that chan…
Effects of Outdoor and Household Air Pollution on Hand Grip Strength in a Longitudinal Study of Rural Beijing Adults
Background: Outdoor and household PM 2.5 are established risk factors for chronic disease and early mortality. In China, high levels of outdoor PM 2.5 and solid fuel use for cooking and heating, especially in winter, pose large health risks to the country's aging population. Hand grip strength is a validated biomarker of functional aging and strong predictor of disability and mortality in older adults. We investigated the effects of wintertime ho…
Christianity in the Rock Art of Australia and Chile
This article is an exploration of how Christian influences manifested in Indigenous rock art, comparing two distinct case studies: western Arnhem Land in northern Australia and the southern Andes in north-central Chile. The analysis aims to understand the intersection between Indigenous artistic traditions and the introduction of Christianity through European colonization. Our comparative analysis reveals significant regional differences. In west…
Regional Reponses to Global Climate Change
Northern Australia and particularly the Kimberley and Arnhem Land regions are well known for the intensive production of figurative anthropomorphs as a dominant theme by the terminal Pleistocene. Ongoing analysis and dating places the archaeological efflorescence of individual human figures and grouped scenes, often with extraordinary detail in the depictions of accoutrements, weaponry, and personal ornamentation, subsequent to the LGM (MIS 2) an…
Access to affordable daycare and women’s mental health in Rajasthan, India
Background: Women in India are often responsible for unpaid household work, family caregiving, and paid work, which can contribute to poorer mental health. The provision of childcare has the potential to improve women's mental health, but evidence on the effects of providing access to daycare is limited. Methods: We designed a cluster-randomised trial and used data from a sample of 2858 mothers with age-eligible children from 160 village hamlets …
Scratching the surface
This article deals with visual expression in the form of subtractive rock markings from the Cockburn Ranges, situated within the Balanggarra Native Title determination in the east Kimberley, Western Australia.We present examples of subtractive rock marking diversity, ranging from cupules and abraded grooves, recursive cultural practises in the form of battering and scratching of extant artworks, figurative and non-figurative images, potentially r…
Impact evaluation of the Tamani project to improve maternal and child health in Tanzania
BACKGROUND: The Tabora Maternal and Newborn Health Initiative project was a multicomponent intervention to improve maternal and newborn health in the Tabora region of Tanzania. Components included training healthcare providers and community health workers, infrastructure upgrades, and improvements to health management. This study aimed to examine the impact of trainings on four key outcomes: skilled birth attendance, antenatal care, respectful ma…
Growing Up in Rural America
Scholars often attribute these sentiments to widespread economic distress found in many rural communities Some rural areas have experienced deep poverty persisting across generations
Histories of rock art research in Western Australia’s Kimberley, 1838–2000
Many other rock art 'styles', 'traditions' and place
Growing Up in Rural America
Scholars often attribute these sentiments to widespread economic distress found in many rural communities Some rural areas have experienced deep poverty persisting across generations
Superpositions and superimpositions in rock art studies
Patterns of superposition in rock art are often used to systematically construct style sequences. However, once on the rock, images can affect subsequent engagements with the art, the rock surface, the site, and its surrounding landscape, and this recursiveness can be studied through the superimpositions (significantly overlaid markings) on a rock face. This is an opportunity for archaeologists to investigate the culture of engagement not just at…
Ethnic differences in Sars-CoV-2 infection and Covid-19-related hospitalisation, intensive care unit admission, and death in 17 million adults in England
BACKGROUND: COVID-19 has disproportionately affected minority ethnic populations in the UK. Our aim was to quantify ethnic differences in SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 outcomes during the first and second waves of the COVID-19 pandemic in England. METHODS: We conducted an observational cohort study of adults (aged ≥18 years) registered with primary care practices in England for whom electronic health records were available through the OpenSAF…
The case for continuity of human occupation and rock art production in the Kimberley, Australia
The Kimberley region hosts a large body of figurative and non-figurative rock art, which we argue has changed through time as people have utilised it to interact with social and environmental changes. While the dating of this art is still nascent, preliminary evidence shows that some of the Kimberley’s earliest rock art dates to the terminal Pleistocene. This early art includes cupules as well as naturalistic animal, human, and plant figures. We …
Determining the origin and changing shape of landscape‐scale rock formations with three‐dimensional modelling
Archaeologists often wonder how and when rock shelters formed, yet their origins and antiquity are almost never systematically investigated. Here we present a new method to determine how and when individual boulders and rock shelters came to lie in their present landscape settings. We do so through 3D laser (LiDAR) mapping, illustrating the method by example of the Borologa Aboriginal site complex in the Kimberley region of northwestern Australia…
Balancing work and care
Increasing caregiving needs for family members has created pressure on prime-age workers. Combined with the ageing population, the demand for care related to illness and disability by relatives mean more of the workforce may have to consider caring needs (Bauer and Sousa-Poza, 2015). ‘Informal caregivers’ provide care generally without payment (Yoo et al. , 2004). In contrast to formal care, informal caregivers usually have a close relationship w…
Ages for Australia's oldest rock paintings
Metal burial
This paper explores identity and the recursive impacts of cross-cultural colonial encounters on individuals, cultural materials, and cultural practices in 20th-century northern Australia. We focus on an assemblage of cached metal objects and associated cultural materials that embody both Aboriginal tradition and innovation. These cultural materials were wrapped in paperbark and placed within a ring of stones, a bundling practice also seen in huma…
Kimberley Rock Art
Factors associated with Covid-19-related death using OpenSafely
Investigating the Anthropic Construction of Rock Art Sites Through Archaeomorphology
Development of discipline creates polarities in practice and views
Development of discipline creates polarities in practice and views." Australian Archaeology, 86(3), pp. 302–303
Effect of vaccination on children’s learning achievements
Background Beyond the prevention of illness and death, vaccination may provide additional benefits such as improved educational outcomes. However, there is currently little evidence on this question. Our objective was to estimate the effect of childhood vaccination on learning achievements among primary school children in India. Methods We used cohort data from the India Human Development Survey. Vaccination status and confounders were measured a…
The Price Isn’t Right
Dating painting events through by-products of ochre processing
The ‘direct’ dating of rock art has proliferated since the development of accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon, uranium-series and optically stimulated luminescence dating, yet still, most rock art is not directly datable due to the mineral nature of the constituent pigments. Here we present another method: the recovery and dating by stratigraphic association of small buried fragments of ochre and dried paint drops deposited onto soft sedime…
The Archaeology of Rock Art in Western Arnhem Land, Australia
Western Arnhem Land, in the Top End of Australia’s Northern Territory, has a rich archaeological landscape, ethnographic record and body of rock art that displays an astonishing array of imagery on shelter walls and ceilings. While the archaeology goes back to the earliest period of Aboriginal occupation of the continent, the rock art represents some of the richest, most diverse and visually most impressive regional assemblages anywhere in the wo…
Ages for Australia's oldest rock paintings
Explaining the social gradient in coronary heart disease
Study objectives: There are contradictory perspectives on the importance of conventional coronary heart disease (CHD) risk factors in explaining population levels and social gradients in CHD. This study examined the contribution of conventional CHD risk factors (smoking, hypertension, dyslipidaemia, and diabetes) to explaining population levels and to absolute and relative social inequalities in CHD. This was investigated in an entire population …
Minjiwarra
Recent archaeological research in Australia’s north-eastern Kimberley has luminescence dated a large red sedimentary feature, known as Minjiwarra, with artefacts in stratified contexts from the late Holocene to ∼50,000 years ago. This site is located on the Drysdale River, with preliminary excavations undertaken as part of an ARC Linkage Project. Deeply stratified sites in association with rockshelters are uncommon across the NE Kimberley and bas…
Removing user fees for facility-based delivery services
BACKGROUND: Several countries in sub-Saharan Africa have recently adopted policies that remove user fees for facility-based delivery services. There is little rigorous evidence of the impact of these policies on utilization of delivery services and no evaluations have examined effects on neonatal mortality rates (NMR). In this article, we estimate the causal effect of removing user fees on the proportion of births delivered in facilities, the pro…
Paid maternity leave and childhood vaccination uptake
Understanding the Rapid Increase in Life Expectancy in South Korea
Objectives. We assessed life expectancy increases in the past several decades in South Korea by age and specific causes of death. Methods. We applied Arriaga's decomposition method to life table data (1970–2005) and mortality statistics (1983–2005) to estimate age- and cause-specific contributions to changes in life expectancy. Results. Reductions in infant mortality made the largest age-group contribution to the life expectancy increase. Reducti…
The contribution of material, psychosocial, and behavioral factors in explaining educational and occupational mortality inequalities in a nationally representative sample of South Koreans
Associations Between Income Inequality and Mortality Among US States
Objectives. We used census data to examine associations between income inequality and mortality among US states for each decade from 1949 to 1999 and tax return income data to estimate associations for 1989. Methods. Cross-sectional correlation analyses were used to assess income inequality–mortality relationships. Results. Census income analyses revealed little association between income inequality and mortality for 1949, 1959, or 1969. An assoc…
Superpositions and superimpositions in rock art studies
Patterns of superposition in rock art are often used to systematically construct style sequences. However, once on the rock, images can affect subsequent engagements with the art, the rock surface, the site, and its surrounding landscape, and this recursiveness can be studied through the superimpositions (significantly overlaid markings) on a rock face. This is an opportunity for archaeologists to investigate the culture of engagement not just at…
Did the Great Recession affect mortality rates in the metropolitan United States? Effects on mortality by age, gender and cause of death
National female literacy, individual socio-economic status, and maternal health care use in sub-Saharan Africa
Kimberley Stout figures’
The rock art of Western Australia’s Kimberley region has been the subject of special attention by archaeologists and rock art enthusiasts since George Grey’s publication of the first illustration of it. Since then, researchers have tried to date and classify the Kimberley’s many rock art styles. To date, eight widespread and highly recognisable styles have been identified, but many motif types in a range of styles remain undescribed and lie outsi…
Trends in the contribution of major causes of death to the black-white life expectancy gap by US state
Identity signalling in shields
This paper explores inter-group signalling behaviour of hunter-fisher-gatherers living in arid and temperate coastal regions in Holocene Australia. We examine shield designs in the rock art of two visually similar engraved art provinces on opposite sides of the Australian continent: Port Hedland and Sydney. We explore the question of inter-group social signalling behaviour in arid versus fertile environments by testing the stylistic heterogeneity…
Achieving effective universal health coverage with equity
Chile's 'health guarantees' approach to providing universal and equitable coverage for quality healthcare in a dual public-private health system has generated global interest. The programme, called AUGE, defines legally enforceable rights to explicit healthcare benefits for priority health conditions, which incrementally covered 56 problems representing 75% of the disease burden between 2005 and 2009. It was accompanied by other health reform mea…
The Effect of Mandatory Seat Belt Laws on Seat Belt Use by Socioeconomic Position
We investigated the differential effect of mandatory seat belt laws on seat belt use among socioeconomic subgroups. We identified the differential effect of legislation across higher versus lower education individuals using a difference‐in‐differences model based on state variations in the timing of the passage of laws. We find strong effects of mandatory seat belt laws for all education groups, but the effect is stronger for those with fewer yea…
Dating painting events through by-products of ochre processing
The ‘direct’ dating of rock art has proliferated since the development of accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon, uranium-series and optically stimulated luminescence dating, yet still, most rock art is not directly datable due to the mineral nature of the constituent pigments. Here we present another method: the recovery and dating by stratigraphic association of small buried fragments of ochre and dried paint drops deposited onto soft sedime…
The effect of agency on women's mental distress
Economic conditions and health behaviours during the ‘Great Recession’
BACKGROUND: The adoption of healthier behaviours has been hypothesised as a mechanism to explain empirical findings of population health improvements during some economic downturns. METHODS: We estimated the effect of the local unemployment rate on health behaviours using pooled annual surveys from the 2003-2010 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Surveys, as well as population-based telephone surveys of the US adult general population. Analyses …
Individual- and community-level determinants of Inuit youth mental wellness
The changing gender differences in life expectancy in Korea 1970-2005
Increasing educational inequality in preterm birth in Québec, Canada, 1981–2006
BACKGROUND: Few studies have evaluated the relationship between preterm birth (PTB) and maternal education over time. We sought to determine whether educational inequalities in PTB have increased in Québec, Canada. METHODS: The authors analysed 2,124,909 singleton live births from 1981 to 2006, and computed the Relative Index of Inequality (RII) and Slope Index of Inequality (SII) with 95% CIs for the relationship between maternal education and e…
Growing Up in Rural America
Scholars often attribute these sentiments to widespread economic distress found in many rural communities Some rural areas have experienced deep poverty persisting across generations
Who benefits from removing user fees for facility-based delivery services? Evidence on socioeconomic differences from Ghana, Senegal and Sierra Leone
The "Americanisation" of migrants
Relative or Absolute Standards for Child Poverty
Objectives. The purpose of the present study was to compare the associations of state-referenced and federal poverty measures with states’ infant and child mortality rates. Methods. Compressed mortality and Current Population Survey data were used to examine relationships between mortality and (1) state-referenced poverty (percentage of children below half the state median income) and (2) percentage of children below the federal poverty line. Res…
Is Income Inequality a Determinant of Population Health? Part 1. A Systematic Review
This article reviews 98 aggregate and multilevel studies examining the associations between income inequality and health. Overall, there seems to be little support for the idea that income inequality is a major, generalizable determinant of population health differences within or between rich countries. Income inequality may, however, directly influence some health outcomes, such as homicide in some contexts. The strongest evidence for direct hea…
Hurling Alone? How Social Capital Failed to Save the Irish From Cardiovascular Disease in the United States
Objectives. We performed a historical review of cardiovascular risk profiles of Irish immigrants to the United States, 1850–1970, in regard to lifestyle, socio-economic circumstances, and social capital. Methods. We analyzed US Census data from 1850–1970, area-based social and epidemiological data from Boston, data from Ireland’s National Nutrition Surveillance Centre, and literature on Irish migration. Results. The Irish were consistently at inc…
US regional and national cause-specific mortality and trends in income inequality
We examined the concordance of income inequality trends with 30-year US regional trends in cause-specific mortality and 100-year trends in heart disease and infant mortality. The evidence suggests that any effects of income inequality on population hea
Associations Between Income Inequality and Mortality Among US States
Objectives. We used census data to examine associations between income inequality and mortality among US states for each decade from 1949 to 1999 and tax return income data to estimate associations for 1989. Methods. Cross-sectional correlation analyses were used to assess income inequality–mortality relationships. Results. Census income analyses revealed little association between income inequality and mortality for 1949, 1959, or 1969. An assoc…
Explaining the social gradient in coronary heart disease
Study objectives: There are contradictory perspectives on the importance of conventional coronary heart disease (CHD) risk factors in explaining population levels and social gradients in CHD. This study examined the contribution of conventional CHD risk factors (smoking, hypertension, dyslipidaemia, and diabetes) to explaining population levels and to absolute and relative social inequalities in CHD. This was investigated in an entire population …
The "Americanisation" of migrants
Trends in the Black-White Life Expectancy Gap in the United States, 1983-2003
CONTEXT: Since the early 1980s, the black-white gap in life expectancy at birth increased sharply and subsequently declined, but the causes of these changes have not been investigated. OBJECTIVE: To determine the contribution of specific age groups and causes of death contributing to the changes in the black-white life expectancy gap from 1983-2003. DESIGN AND SETTING: US vital statistics data from the US National Vital Statistics System, maintai…
Global Variability in Fruit and Vegetable Consumption
The contribution of material, psychosocial, and behavioral factors in explaining educational and occupational mortality inequalities in a nationally representative sample of South Koreans
Implicit Value Judgments in the Measurement of Health Inequalities
CONTEXT: Quantitative estimates of the magnitude, direction, and rate of change of health inequalities play a crucial role in creating and assessing policies aimed at eliminating the disproportionate burden of disease in disadvantaged populations. It is generally assumed that the measurement of health inequalities is a value-neutral process, providing objective data that are then interpreted using normative judgments about whether a particular di…
Relative Measures Alone Tell Only Part of the Story
In their article on HIV/AIDS mortality, Rubin et al. approvingly cite Braveman's definition of a health inequality as “a difference in which disadvantaged social groups ... systematically experience worse health or greater health risks than more advantaged social groups.”1(p1053) Later in her work, Braveman discusses two common effect measures used when comparing two groups, the rate ratio and the rate difference, and observes that “both absolute…
Understanding the Rapid Increase in Life Expectancy in South Korea
Objectives. We assessed life expectancy increases in the past several decades in South Korea by age and specific causes of death. Methods. We applied Arriaga's decomposition method to life table data (1970–2005) and mortality statistics (1983–2005) to estimate age- and cause-specific contributions to changes in life expectancy. Results. Reductions in infant mortality made the largest age-group contribution to the life expectancy increase. Reducti…
National female literacy, individual socio-economic status, and maternal health care use in sub-Saharan Africa
P2-526 Social determinants of depressive symptoms among older adults in low- and middle-income countries
Background Consistent evidence has linked depression to social factors among older people in rich countries; however, little is known for low- or middle-income countries (LMIC) and virtually no research exists that is comparable across LMIC. Understanding the relationship between key socioeconomic factors and depressive symptoms among older people in resource-poor contexts is essential for developing mental health policies. Methods To investigate…
Increasing educational inequality in preterm birth in Québec, Canada, 1981–2006
BACKGROUND: Few studies have evaluated the relationship between preterm birth (PTB) and maternal education over time. We sought to determine whether educational inequalities in PTB have increased in Québec, Canada. METHODS: The authors analysed 2,124,909 singleton live births from 1981 to 2006, and computed the Relative Index of Inequality (RII) and Slope Index of Inequality (SII) with 95% CIs for the relationship between maternal education and e…
Causes of Widening Life Expectancy Inequalities in Québec, Canada, 1989–2004
Socioeconomic inequalities in risk factors for non communicable diseases in low-income and middle-income countries
Disaggregated analysis of the prevalence of non-communicable disease risk factors demonstrated different patterns and varying degrees of socioeconomic inequalities across low- and middle-income settings. Interventions should aim to reach and achieve sustained benefits for high-risk populations
Socioeconomic inequality in the prevalence of noncommunicable diseases in low- and middle-income countries
Noncommunicable diseases are not necessarily diseases of the wealthy, and showed unequal distribution across socioeconomic groups in low- and middle-income country groups. Disaggregated research is warranted to assess the impact of individual noncommunicable diseases according to socioeconomic indicators
The changing gender differences in life expectancy in Korea 1970-2005
The influence of popular media on perceptions of personal and population risk in possible disease outbreaks
Infectious disease outbreaks are uncertain and potentially risky events that often attract significant media attention. Previous research has shown that, regardless of their objective severity, diseases receiving greater coverage in the media are considered to be more serious and more representative of a disease than those receiving less coverage. This study assesses the role of media coverage in estimations of population risk (measured as percei…
The relationship of living arrangements and depressive symptoms among older adults in sub-Saharan Africa
As depressive symptoms are known to be predictive of poor quality of life and increased mortality, it is important to address how health and social policies can be put in place to mitigate the potentially detrimental effects of solitary living on the mental health of older persons in sub-Saharan Africa
The Effect of Mandatory Seat Belt Laws on Seat Belt Use by Socioeconomic Position
We investigated the differential effect of mandatory seat belt laws on seat belt use among socioeconomic subgroups. We identified the differential effect of legislation across higher versus lower education individuals using a difference‐in‐differences model based on state variations in the timing of the passage of laws. We find strong effects of mandatory seat belt laws for all education groups, but the effect is stronger for those with fewer yea…
Who cares about health inequalities? Cross-country evidence from the World Health Survey
Reduction of health inequalities within and between countries is a global health priority, but little is known about the determinants of popular support for this goal. We used data from the World Health Survey to assess individual preferences for prioritizing reductions in health and health care inequalities. We used descriptive tables and regression analysis to study the determinants of preferences for reducing health inequalities as the primary…
A Non-Parametric Approach to Selection Bias
Introduction Within Canada, Quebecers experience the greatest barriers in accessing primary care with over 25% of the population without a regular family physician and the highest rate of emergency department (ED) use. Family Medicine Groups (FMGs) were introduced in 2002 to provide greater access to care, namely for individuals with chronic conditions such as diabetes. Some key characteristics of the FMG organizational reform are: (1) it is base…
Medicine (53 works) · Environmental health (40 works) · Demography (36 works) · Population (34 works) · Economics (26 works) · Health disparities and outcomes (26 works) · Sociology (26 works) · Geography (22 works) · Demography (19 works) · Gerontology (19 works)