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About

Dr. Frank Speizer was the founding principle investigator of a population based prospective study of over 120,000 women aged 30-55 (Nurses’ Health Study) that started in 1976 and has continued actively to this date. Although originally designed to study the long term outcomes related to the use of exogenous hormones and contraceptives the study has expanded to assess a number of behavioral, nutritional and other life style risk factors for a wide variety of chronic diseases. Dr. Speizer has carried out other large scale population based studies that have included a number of air pollution and health studies, most notably the Harvard Six City Study, as well as other physiologic and epidemiological studies in healthy and disease population groups. Currently Dr. Speizer is a co investigator in The Former Players Health Study at Harvard University, the largest study of living former National Football League players who are being assessed for potential risks related to their football playing experiences. Chronic diseases in a variety domains including neurocognitive, cardiovascular, muscular skeletal, endocrine, and psycho-social outcomes are being assessed prospective. Frank Erwin Speizer (born 8 June 1935) is an American physician and epidemiologist, currently Professor of Environmental Health and Environmental Science at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and Edward H. Kass Distinguished Professor of Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School.[1] He is best known for his work on two major epidemiological cohort studies: the Nurses' Health Study, which explored women's illnesses and health risk factors, and the Harvard Six Cities study, which definitively linked air pollution to higher death rates in urban areas.

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Skills

Experience

Professor of Environmental Science

Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston

Jan-2000 to Present

Publication

Night-Shift Work and Risk of Colorectal Cancer in the Nurses’ Health Study

Exposure to light at night suppresses the physiologic production of melatonin, a hormone that has antiproliferative effects on intestinal cancers. Although observational studies have associa...

  • dott image February, 2003

A Prospective Study of Self-Reported Sleep Duration and Incident Diabetes in Women

Short-term sleep restriction results in impaired glucose tolerance. To test whether habitually short sleep duration increases the risk of developing diabetes, we studied a cohort of 70,026 w...

  • dott image January, 2003

A Prospective Study of Sleep Duration and Coronary Heart Disease in Women

Background Long-term sleep deprivation is common in today's society. Recent experiments have demonstrated that short-term sleep deprivation in healthy subjects results in adverse physiologi...

  • dott image October, 2001

Rotating Night Shifts and Risk of Breast Cancer in Women Participating in the Nurses' Health Study

Background: Melatonin shows potential oncostatic action, and light exposure during night suppresses melatonin production. There is little information, however, about the direct effect of nig...

The Effect of Fruit and Vegetable Intake on Risk for Coronary Heart Disease

Background: Many constituents of fruits and vegetables may reduce the risk for coronary heart disease, but data on the relationship between fruit and vegetable consumption and risk for coro...

The Effect of Fruit and Vegetable Intake on Risk for Coronary Heart Disease

Background: Many constituents of fruits and vegetables may reduce the risk for coronary heart disease, but data on the relationship between fruit and vegetable consumption and risk for coro...

  • dott image December, 2000

A Prospective, Observational Study of Postmenopausal Hormone Therapy and Primary Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease

Background: Most primary prevention studies have found that long-term users of postmenopausal hormone therapy are at lower risk for coronary events, but numerous questions remain. An advers...

  • dott image December, 2000

A Prospective, Observational Study of Postmenopausal Hormone Therapy and Primary Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease

Background: Most primary prevention studies have found that long-term users of postmenopausal hormone therapy are at lower risk for coronary events, but numerous questions remain. An advers...

  • dott image October, 1999

Fruit and Vegetable Intake in Relation to Risk of Ischemic Stroke

Context Few studies have evaluated the relationship between fruit and vegetable intake and cardiovascular disease. Objective To examine the associations between fruit and vegetable intake...

  • dott image October, 1999

Walking Compared With Vigorous Physical Activity and Risk of Type 2 Diabetes in Women: A Prospective Study

Context Although many studies suggest that physical activity may reduce risk of type 2 diabetes, the role of moderate-intensity activity such as walking is not well understood. Objectives...