Maternal Mortality in the United States: Trends and Opportunities for Prevention.
Wang S, Rexrode KM, Florio AA, Rich-Edwards JW, Chavarro JE.
Annu Rev Med. 2023 Jan 27. 74:199-216. PMID: 36706746
Faculty Affiliate in the Department of Epidemiology
Epidemiology
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Associate Professor of Medicine
Medicine-Brigham and Women's Hospital
Harvard Medical School
My research focuses on understanding how nutritional and lifestyle factors affect human reproduction and reproductive milestones throughout the life course, and how these events, in turn, impact other aspects of health. Over the last decade, this broad interest has focused primarily on understanding how nutrition impacts human fertility. More recently, my work has expanded to understand how reproductive events impact health throughout life.
The overarching goal of my infertility research is to identify modifiable lifestyle factors that may improve fertility in humans. Towards achieving this goal, I have developed and adapted a series conducted population-based and hospital-based epidemiologic studies which, together, allow a comprehensive examination of the relationship between nutrition and fertility. My work in population-based cohorts has included the identification of nutritional risk factors for infertility and conditions associated with infertility or decreased fecundity such as endometriosis, spontaneous abortion and ectopic pregnancy, as well studies of how nutrition relates to semen quality and other markers of testicular function in healthy young men. My parallel work among couples undergoing infertility treatment, which has primarily taken place at the Massachusetts General Hospital Fertility Center, has focused on understanding how pre-treatment diet of both the female and the male partner influence their chances of a successful treatment.
My research agenda has expanded to include the study of long-term health consequences exposures and events before and during pregnancy on the health of mother and child alike. This work is currently focused on two fronts. First, I am currently investigating how cesarean delivery influences growth and health trajectories throughout the life-course relative to being born by vaginal delivery. My group’s work is aimed at understanding whether differences in growth and health trajectories can be explained by incomplete accounting for confounders while also investigating potential biologic mediators of these relations including changes to the gut microbiome and changes to the epigenome. Second, we are also investigating how reproductive traits, fertility and pregnancy complications influence women’s health after pregnancy, as they go through the menopausal transition and beyond.
In order to support my substantive research, I have developed research infrastructure platforms that can be used as a multi-purpose platform supporting life course epidemiologic research. One of these platforms is the Nurses’ Health Study 3 (www.nhs3.org), an ongoing, open, web-based prospective cohort study of more than 50,000 young health professional women aimed at evaluating the role of diet, lifestyle, and biological factors on various aspects of women’s health, including fertility and health during pregnancy. In parallel, I have been involved in modifying related cohort studies, in particular the Growing Up Today Study (www.gutsweb.org) and to a lesser extent the Nurses’ Health Study II, to facilitate life course epidemiologic research integrating data across these three cohorts as a single cohesive resource for understanding the life course determinants of chronic diseases manifesting in adult life.
MD, Medicine
National University of Colombia
ScD, Nutrition and Epidemiology
Harvard School of Public Health
ScM, Epidemiology
Harvard School of Public Health
Wang S, Rexrode KM, Florio AA, Rich-Edwards JW, Chavarro JE.
Annu Rev Med. 2023 Jan 27. 74:199-216. PMID: 36706746
Davis CP, Garzia NA, Cushing-Haugen K, Terry KL, Chiu YH, Sandoval-Insausti H, Chavarro JE, Missmer SA, Harris HR.
F S Sci. 2022 Dec 19. PMID: 36549440
Yang J, Tobias DK, Li S, Bhupathiraju SN, Ley SH, Hinkle SN, Qian F, Chen Z, Zhu Y, Bao W, Chavarro JE, Hu FB, Zhang C.
Am J Clin Nutr. 2022 12 19. 116(6):1693-1703. PMID: 36373514
Zebrowska M, Strohmaier S, Westgarth C, Huttenhower C, Erber AC, Haghayegh S, Eliassen AH, Huang T, Laden F, Hart JE, Rosner B, Kawachi I, Chavarro JE, Okereke OI, Schernhammer ES.
J Affect Disord. 2023 Feb 15. 323:554-561. PMID: 36464093
Wang WC, Ding M, Strohmaier S, Schernhammer E, Sun Q, Chavarro JE, Tiemeier H.
Psychol Med. 2022 Nov 15. 1-9. PMID: 36377496
Mínguez-Alarcón L, Hammer KC, Williams PL, Souter I, Ford JB, Rexrode KM, Hauser R, Chavarro JE.
J Assist Reprod Genet. 2022 Dec. 39(12):2719-2728. PMID: 36322231
Wang YX, Ding M, Li Y, Wang L, Rich-Edwards JW, Florio AA, Manson JE, Chavarro JE.
Lancet Reg Health Am. 2022 Nov. 15. PMID: 36632048
Wang S, Quan L, Chavarro JE, Slopen N, Kubzansky LD, Koenen KC, Kang JH, Weisskopf MG, Branch-Elliman W, Roberts AL.
JAMA Psychiatry. 2022 11 01. 79(11):1081-1091. PMID: 36069885
Ardisson Korat AV, Chiu YH, Bertrand KA, Zhang S, Epstein MM, Rosner BA, Chiuve S, Campos H, Giovannucci EL, Chavarro JE, Birmann BM.
Leuk Lymphoma. 2022 Dec. 63(14):3351-3361. PMID: 36255154
Wang YX, Arvizu M, Rich-Edwards JW, Manson JE, Wang L, Missmer SA, Chavarro JE.
EClinicalMedicine. 2022 Dec. 54:101693. PMID: 36263395
For immediate release: September 7, 2022 Boston, MA – Psychological distress, including depression, anxiety, worry, perceived stress, and loneliness, before COVID-19 infection was associated with an increased risk of long COVID, according to researchers at Harvard T.H. Chan…
Harvard SOGIE (Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity and Expression) Health Equity Research Collaborative celebrates its 10th anniversary during Pride Month 2021.
Women who experienced high blood pressure during pregnancy had a higher risk of dying prematurely from heart disease, according to a new study led by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The study, led by Jorge Chavarro,…
Women who always have irregular menstrual cycles or cycles lasting more than 40 days may have a greater risk of dying before age 70 compared to women with very regular cycles.
Men who exercise regularly appear to have higher quality semen compared with men who don’t exercise regularly, according to new research led by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health researchers and colleagues. The study examined data collected…