Associate Physician
Brigham and Women's Hospital

walter.willett@channing.harvard.edu

A major part of this work relates to dietary factors. Thus, a substantial effort is devoted to the development, evaluation, and refinement of methods to measure various aspects of diet in the context of large epidemiologic studies. This has resulted in the development and validation of food frequency questionnaires that can be used repeatedly in the tens of thousands of persons participating in the Nurses' Health Studies I and II and among the 52,000 men participating in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study. In addition, biological indicators of dietary intake based on measurements in nail clippings and blood are used for some nutritional factors. Among the many aspects of diet that are being examined, amount and type of fat has received much attention. No support was found for the hypothesis that fat intake was an important risk factor for breast cancer, nor was total fat intake related to risk of coronary disease in men or women. However, the type of fat does appear to be important; when compared with carbohydrates, intake of trans fat was associated with higher risk of coronary heart disease but intakes of unsaturated fat were associated with reduced risks. Currently, a wide variety of other dietary factors are being examined as potential risk or protective factors for these and many other diseases.

Smith-Warner SA, Spiegelman D, Yaun SS, Van Den Brandt PA, Folsom AR, Goldbohm RA, Graham A, Holmberg L, Howe GR, Marshall JR, Miller AB, Potter JD, Speizer FE, Willett WC, Wolk A, Hunter DJ. Alcohol and breast cancer in women: a pooled analysis of cohort studies. JAMA. 1998 Feb 18;279(7):535-40. [abstract]

Rimm EB, Willett WC, Hu FB, Sampson L, Colditz GA, Manson JE, Hennekens C, Stampfer MJ. Folate and vitamin B6 from diet and supplements in relation to risk of coronary heart disease among women. JAMA. 1998 Feb 4;279(5):359-64. [abstract]

Huang Z, Willett WC, Manson JE, Rosner B, Stampfer MJ, Speizer FE, Colditz GA. Body weight, weight change, and risk of hypertension in women. Ann Intern Med. 1998 Jan 15;128(2):81-8. [abstract]

Leitzmann MF, Giovannucci EL, Rimm EB, Stampfer MJ, Spiegelman D, Wing A, Willett WC. The relation of physical activity to risk of symptomatic gallstone disease in men. Ann Intern Med. 1998 Mar 15;128(6):417-25. [abstract]