Associate Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology
Harvard Medical School

Associate Professor, Department of Epidemiology
Harvard School of Public Health

Clinical Epidemiologist, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology

Associate Epidemiologist, Department of Medicine
Brigham and Women's Hospital

karin.michels@channing.harvard.edu

Dr. Michels' research interests focus on methods for the assessment and analysis of dietary data in observational studies and on the etiology of breast cancer. While much progress has been made in recent years in the area of nutritional epidemiology, diet remains one of the most difficult exposure to ascertain in observational research and the optimal use of self-reported information on diet in statistical analyses has been insufficiently explored. Dr. Michels holds an R01 from the National Institutes of Health to explore methods in nutritional epidemiology in the Nurses' Health Study.

Our current understanding of risk factors for breast cancer can only explain a modest proportion of the variation in breast cancer incidence. Our search for new risk factors extends now to the whole span of a woman's life and goes back as far as events in utero. Dr. Michels organizes the Nurses' Mothers' Study from which we hope to gain additional insights into the role of perinatal and early life factors in breast cancer etiology.

Rothman KJ, Michels KB. The continuing unethical use of placebo controls. N Engl J Med. 1994 Aug 11;331(6):394-8. No abstract available.

Michels KB, Willett WC, Rosner BA, Manson JE, Hunter DJ, Colditz GA, Hankinson SE, Speizer FE. Prospective assessment of breastfeeding and breast cancer incidence among 89,887 women. Lancet. 1996 Feb 17;347(8999):431-6. [abstract]

Michels KB, Trichopoulos D, Robins JM, Rosner BA, Manson JE, Hunter DJ, Colditz GA, Hankinson SE, Speizer FE, Willett WC. Birthweight as risk factor for breast cancer. Lancet. 1996 Dec 7;348(9041):1542-6. [Author's reply: Lancet 1997;349:501-502] [abstract]

Michels KB, Giovannucci E, Joshipura KJ, Rosner BA, Stampfer MJ, Fuchs CS, Colditz GA, Speizer FE, Willett WC. A prospective study of fruit and vegetable consumption and colorectal cancer incidence. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2000 Nov 1;92(21):1740-52. Erratum in: J Natl Cancer Inst 2001 Jun 6;93(11):879. [abstract]

Michels KB, Trichopoulos D, Rosner BA, Hunter DJ, Colditz GA, Hankinson SE, Speizer FE, Willett WC. Being breast-fed in infancy and breast cancer incidence in adult life: results from the two Nurses' Health Studies. Am J Epidemiol. 2001 Feb 1;153(3):275-83. Erratum in: Am J Epidemiol 2001 Apr 1;153(7):720. [abstract]