DF/HCC Program Affiliation

Member, Cancer Risk Reduction Program
Member, Cancer Disparities Program

DF/HCC Associations

Member, Center Scientific Council

Research Abstract

Nancy Krieger is Professor of Society, Human Development, and Health at the Harvard School of Public Health, Associate Director of the Harvard Center for Society and Health, and Co-Director of the HSPH Interdisciplinary Concentration on Women, Gender, and Health. She received her PhD in Epidemiology from the University of California at Berkeley in 1989. Dr. Krieger is a social epidemiologist, with a background in biochemistry, philosophy of science, and the history of public health, combined with 25 years of experience as an activist in issues involving social justice, science, and health. In 2004, she became one of the ISI highly cited scientists, a group comprising “less than one-half of one percent of all publishing researchers.” Dr. Krieger’s work focuses on three aspects of social inequalities in health: (a) etiologic studies on the determinants of health inequities, (b) methods for improving monitoring of social inequalities in health, and (c) development of theoretical frameworks, including ecosocial theory, to guide work on understanding and addressing health inequities, as informed by analysis of the history and politics of epidemiology and public health. Examples of her empirical work include: research on racism, discrimination and health, including blood pressure and birth outcomes; socioeconomic and racial/ethnic disparities in breast cancer; and research on appropriate measures of social class (individual, household, and neighborhood), especially for population-based monitoring of social inequalities in health and also for studying women, gender, class, and health. She is editor of Embodying Inequality: Epidemiologic Perspectives (Baywood Press, 2004) and co-editor, with Glen Margo, of AIDS: The Politics of Survival (Baywood Publishers, 1994), and, with Elizabeth Fee, of Women’s Health, Politics, and Power: Essays on Sex/Gender, Medicine, and Public Health (Baywood Publishers, 1994). In 1994 she co-founded, and still chairs, the Spirit of 1848 Caucus of the American Public Health Association, which is concerned with the links between social justice and public health.

Publications

• Krieger N. Proximal, distal, and the politics of causation: what's level got to do with it? Am J Public Health 2008 Feb; 98(2):221-30
  PMID: 18172144
• Krieger N. Commentary: ways of asking and ways of living: reflections on the 50th anniversary of Morris' ever-useful Uses of Epidemiology. Int J Epidemiol 2007 Dec; 36(6):1173-80
  PMID: 18056125
• Krieger N. Why epidemiologists cannot afford to ignore poverty. Epidemiology 2007 Nov; 18(6):658-63
  PMID: 18049180
• Chen JT, Rehkopf DH, Waterman PD, Subramanian SV, Coull BA, Cohen B, Ostrem M, Krieger N. Mapping and measuring social disparities in premature mortality: the impact of census tract poverty within and across Boston neighborhoods, 1999-2001. J Urban Health 2006 Nov; 83(6):1063-84
  PMID: 17001522
• Krieger N, Waterman PD, Hartman C, Bates LM, Stoddard AM, Quinn MM, Sorensen G, Barbeau EM. Social hazards on the job: workplace abuse, sexual harassment, and racial discrimination--a study of Black, Latino, and White low-income women and men workers in the United States. Int J Health Serv 2006; 36(1):51-85
  PMID: 16524165
• Krieger N, Chen JT, Waterman PD, Rehkopf DH, Yin R, Coull BA. Race/ethnicity and changing US socioeconomic gradients in breast cancer incidence: California and Massachusetts, 1978-2002 (United States). Cancer Causes Control 2006 Mar; 17(2):217-26
  PMID: 16425100
• Krieger N. Stormy Weather: Race, Gene Expression, and the Science of Health Disparities. Am J Public Health 2005 Oct 27;
  PMID: 16257941
• Krieger N, Löwy I, Aronowitz R, Bigby J, Dickersin K, Garner E, Gaudillière JP, Hinestrosa C, Hubbard R, Johnson PA, Missmer SA, Norsigian J, Pearson C, Rosenberg CE, Rosenberg L, Rosenkrantz BG, Seaman B, Sonnenschein C, Soto AM, Thornton J, Weisz G. Hormone replacement therapy, cancer, controversies, and women's health: historical, epidemiological, biological, clinical, and advocacy perspectives. J Epidemiol Community Health 2005 Sep; 59(9):740-8
  PMID: 16100311
• Krieger N, Chen JT, Coull BA, Selby JV. Lifetime socioeconomic position and twins' health: an analysis of 308 pairs of United States women twins. PLoS Med 2005 Jul; 2(7):e162
  PMID: 16033303
• Krieger N, Smith K, Naishadham D, Hartman C, Barbeau EM. Experiences of discrimination: validity and reliability of a self-report measure for population health research on racism and health. Soc Sci Med 2005 Oct; 61(7):1576-96
  PMID: 16005789
• Krieger N, Barbeau EM, Soobader MJ. Class matters: U.S. versus U.K. measures of occupational disparities in access to health services and health status in the 2000 U.S. National Health Interview Survey. Int J Health Serv 2005; 35(2):213-36
  PMID: 15932004
• Krieger N. Embodiment: a conceptual glossary for epidemiology. J Epidemiol Community Health 2005 May; 59(5):350-5
  PMID: 15831681
• Krieger N. Defining and investigating social disparities in cancer: critical issues. Cancer Causes Control 2005 Feb; 16(1):5-14
  PMID: 15750853
• Krieger N, Emmons KM, White KB. Cancer disparities: developing a multidisciplinary research agenda - preface. Cancer Causes Control 2005 Feb; 16(1):1-3
  PMID: 15750852
• Krieger N, Chen JT, Waterman PD, Rehkopf DH, Subramanian SV. Painting a truer picture of US socioeconomic and racial/ethnic health inequalities: the Public Health Disparities Geocoding Project. Am J Public Health 2005 Feb; 95(2):312-23
  PMID: 15671470
• Mustillo S, Krieger N, Gunderson EP, Sidney S, McCreath H, Kiefe CI. Self-reported experiences of racial discrimination and Black-White differences in preterm and low-birthweight deliveries: the CARDIA Study. Am J Public Health 2004 Dec; 94(12):2125-31
  PMID: 15569964
• Krieger N, Davey Smith G. "Bodies count," and body counts: social epidemiology and embodying inequality. Epidemiol Rev 2004; 26:92-103
  PMID: 15234950
• Krieger N, Chen JT, Waterman PD, Rehkopf DH, Subramanian SV. Race/ethnicity, gender, and monitoring socioeconomic gradients in health: a comparison of area-based socioeconomic measures--the public health disparities geocoding project. Am J Public Health 2003 Oct; 93(10):1655-71
  PMID: 14534218
• Krieger N. Genders, sexes, and health: what are the connections--and why does it matter? Int J Epidemiol 2003 Aug; 32(4):652-7
  PMID: 12913047
• Krieger N. Does racism harm health? Did child abuse exist before 1962? On explicit questions, critical science, and current controversies: an ecosocial perspective. Am J Public Health 2003 Feb; 93(2):194-9
  PMID: 12554569
• Krieger N, Chen JT, Waterman PD, Soobader MJ, Subramanian SV, Carson R. Geocoding and monitoring of US socioeconomic inequalities in mortality and cancer incidence: does the choice of area-based measure and geographic level matter?: the Public Health Disparities Geocoding Project. Am J Epidemiol 2002 Sep 1; 156(5):471-82
  PMID: 12196317
• Krieger N, Waterman P, Chen JT, Soobader MJ, Subramanian SV, Carson R. Zip code caveat: bias due to spatiotemporal mismatches between zip codes and US census-defined geographic areas--the Public Health Disparities Geocoding Project. Am J Public Health 2002 Jul; 92(7):1100-2
  PMID: 12084688
• Krieger N. Is breast cancer a disease of affluence, poverty, or both? The case of African American women. Am J Public Health 2002 Apr; 92(4):611-3
  PMID: 11919060
• Krieger N. A glossary for social epidemiology. J Epidemiol Community Health 2001 Oct; 55(10):693-700
  PMID: 11553651
• Krieger N. Theories for social epidemiology in the 21st century: an ecosocial perspective. Int J Epidemiol 2001 Aug; 30(4):668-77
  PMID: 11511581
• Krieger N, Chen JT, Selby JV. Comparing individual-based and household-based measures of social class to assess class inequalities in women's health: a methodological study of 684 US women. J Epidemiol Community Health 1999 Oct; 53(10):612-23
  PMID: 10616673
• Krieger N, Quesenberry C, Peng T, Horn-Ross P, Stewart S, Brown S, Swallen K, Guillermo T, Suh D, Alvarez-Martinez L, Ward F. Social class, race/ethnicity, and incidence of breast, cervix, colon, lung, and prostate cancer among Asian, Black, Hispanic, and White residents of the San Francisco Bay Area, 1988-92 (United States). Cancer Causes Control 1999 Dec; 10(6):525-37
  PMID: 10616822