Photo of Nancy Krieger,  PhD

Nancy Krieger, PhD

Harvard T.H. Chan School Of Public Health

Harvard T.H. Chan School Of Public Health
Phone: (617) 432-1571
Fax: (617) 432-3123


nkrieger@hsph.harvard.edu

Nancy Krieger, PhD

Harvard T.H. Chan School Of Public Health

EDUCATIONAL TITLES

  • Professor, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Harvard T.H. Chan School Of Public Health

DF/HCC PROGRAM AFFILIATION

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 from Harvard Catalyst Profiles

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  • Watkins SH, Ho K, Testa C, Falk L, Soule P, Nguyen LV, FitzGibbon S, Slack C, Chen JT, Davey Smith G, De Vivo I, Simpkin AJ, Tilling K, Waterman PD, Krieger N, Suderman M, Relton C. The impact of low input DNA on the reliability of DNA methylation as measured by the Illumina Infinium MethylationEPIC BeadChip. Epigenetics 2022; 17:2366-2376. PubMed
  • Wright E, Waterman PD, Testa C, Chen JT, Krieger N. Breast Cancer Incidence, Hormone Receptor Status, Historical Redlining, and Current Neighborhood Characteristics in Massachusetts, 2005-2015. JNCI Cancer Spectr 2022. PubMed
  • Nethery RC, Rushovich T, Peterson E, Chen JT, Waterman PD, Krieger N, Waller L, Coull BA. Comparing denominator sources for real-time disease incidence modeling: American Community Survey and WorldPop. SSM Popul Health 2021; 14:100786. PubMed
  • Krieger N, Nethery RC, Chen JT, Waterman PD, Wright E, Rushovich T, Coull BA. Impact of Differential Privacy and Census Tract Data Source (Decennial Census Versus American Community Survey) for Monitoring Health Inequities. Am J Public Health 2021; 111:265-268. PubMed
  • Bhatia A, Victora CG, Beckfield J, Budukh A, Krieger N. "Registries are not only a tool for data collection, they are for action": Cancer registration and gaps in data for health equity in six population-based registries in India. Int. J. Cancer 2020. PubMed
  • Krieger N, Wright E, Chen JT, Waterman PD, Huntley ER, Arcaya M. Cancer Stage at Diagnosis, Historical Redlining, and Current Neighborhood Characteristics: Breast, Cervical, Lung, and Colorectal Cancer, Massachusetts, 2001-2015. Am J Epidemiol 2020. PubMed
  • Smith KW, Krieger N, Kosheleva A, Urato M, Waterman PD, Williams DR, Carney DR, Chen JT, Bennett GG, Freeman E. A Structural Model of Social Determinants of the Metabolic Syndrome. Ethn Dis 2020; 30:331-338. PubMed
  • Kiang MV, Krieger N, Buckee CO, Onnela JP, Chen JT. Decomposition of the US black/white inequality in premature mortality, 2010-2015: an observational study. BMJ Open 2019; 9:e029373. PubMed
  • Roncarati JS, Baggett TP, O'Connell JJ, Hwang SW, Cook EF, Krieger N, Sorensen G. Mortality Among Unsheltered Homeless Adults in Boston, Massachusetts, 2000-2009. JAMA Intern Med 2018; 178:1242-1248. PubMed
  • Scally BJ, Krieger N, Chen JT. Racialized economic segregation and stage at diagnosis of colorectal cancer in the United States. Cancer Causes Control 2018; 29:527-537. PubMed
  • Krieger N. Inheritance and Health: What Really Matters? Am J Public Health 2018; 108:606-607. PubMed
  • Krieger N, Kim R, Feldman J, Waterman PD. Using the Index of Concentration at the Extremes at multiple geographical levels to monitor health inequities in an era of growing spatial social polarization: Massachusetts, USA (2010-14). Int J Epidemiol 2018. PubMed
  • Krieger N, Nabavi S, Waterman PD, Achacoso NS, Acton L, Schnitt SJ, Habel LA. Feasibility of analyzing DNA copy number variation in breast cancer tumor specimens from 1950 to 2010: how old is too old? Cancer Causes Control 2018; 29:305-314. PubMed
  • Krieger N, Feldman JM, Kim R, Waterman PD. Cancer Incidence and Multilevel Measures of Residential Economic and Racial Segregation for Cancer Registries. JNCI Cancer Spectr 2018; 2:pky009. PubMed
  • Krieger N, Jahn JL. Tumor Specimen Biobanks: Data Gaps for Analyzing Health Inequities-the Case of Breast Cancer. JNCI Cancer Spectr 2018; 2:pky011. PubMed
  • Krieger N, Jahn JL, Waterman PD, Chen JT. Breast Cancer Estrogen Receptor by Biological Generation: US Black & White Women, Born 1915-1979. Am J Epidemiol 2017. PubMed
  • Krieger N, Waterman PD, Batra N, Murphy JS, Dooley DP, Shah SN. Measures of Local Segregation for Monitoring Health Inequities by Local Health Departments. Am J Public Health 2017; 107:903-906. PubMed
  • Krieger N, Jahn JL, Waterman PD. Jim Crow and estrogen-receptor-negative breast cancer: US-born black and white non-Hispanic women, 1992-2012. Cancer Causes Control 2017; 28:49-59. PubMed
  • Krieger N, Singh N, Waterman PD. Metrics for monitoring cancer inequities: residential segregation, the Index of Concentration at the Extremes (ICE), and breast cancer estrogen receptor status (USA, 1992-2012). Cancer Causes Control 2016; 27:1139-51. PubMed
  • Krieger N, Waterman PD, Spasojevic J, Li W, Maduro G, Van Wye G. Public Health Monitoring of Privilege and Deprivation With the Index of Concentration at the Extremes. Am J Public Health 2016; 106:256-63. PubMed
  • Valeri L, Chen JT, Garcia-Albeniz X, Krieger N, VanderWeele TJ, Coull BA. The role of stage at diagnosis in colorectal cancer black-white survival disparities: a counterfactual causal inference approach. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2015. PubMed
  • Krieger N, Kiang MV, Kosheleva A, Waterman PD, Chen JT, Beckfield J. Age at menarche: 50-year socioeconomic trends among US-born black and white women. Am J Public Health 2015. PubMed
  • Krieger N. Breast bruises and breast cancer. Breast Cancer Res 2015; 17:118. PubMed
  • Johnson TP, Shariff-Marco S, Willis G, Cho YI, Breen N, Gee GC, Krieger N, Grant D, Alegria M, Mays VM, Williams DR, Landrine H, Liu B, Reeve BB, Takeuchi D, Ponce NA. Sources of Interactional Problems in a Survey of Racial/Ethnic Discrimination. Int J Public Opin Res 2015; 27:244-263. PubMed
  • Krieger N, Kosheleva A, Waterman PD, Chen JT, Beckfield J, Kiang MV. 50-year trends in US socioeconomic inequalities in health: US-born Black and White Americans, 1959-2008. Int J Epidemiol 2014. PubMed
  • Krieger N. History, biology, and health inequities: emergent embodied phenotypes and the illustrative case of the breast cancer estrogen receptor. Am J Public Health 2013. PubMed
  • Krieger N, Chen JT, Waterman PD. Temporal trends in the black/white breast cancer case ratio for estrogen receptor status: disparities are historically contingent, not innate. Cancer Causes Control 2011; 22:511-4. PubMed
  • Sembajwe G, Quinn M, Kriebel D, Stoddard A, Krieger N, Barbeau E. The influence of sociodemographic characteristics on agreement between self-reports and expert exposure assessments. Am J Ind Med 2010; 53:1019-31. PubMed
  • Krieger N, Carney D, Lancaster K, Waterman PD, Kosheleva A, Banaji M. Combining Explicit and Implicit Measures of Racial Discrimination in Health Research. Am J Public Health 2010; 100:1485-92. PubMed
  • Krieger N, Chen JT, Waterman PD. Decline in US Breast Cancer Rates After the Women's Health Initiative: Socioeconomic and Racial/Ethnic Differentials. Am J Public Health 2010; 100:S132-S139. PubMed
  • Krieger N, Birn AE. Health reform battles in the USA. Lancet 2010; 375:1081; author reply 1081-2. PubMed
  • Okechukwu CA,Krieger N,Sorensen G,Li Y,Barbeau EM. MassBuilt: effectiveness of an apprenticeship site-based smoking cessation intervention for unionized building trades workers. Cancer Causes Control 2009; 20:887-94. PubMed
  • Shariff-Marco S, Gee GC, Breen N, Willis G, Reeve BB, Grant D, Ponce NA, Krieger N, Landrine H, Williams DR, Alegria M, Mays VM, Johnson TP, Brown ER. A mixed-methods approach to developing a self-reported racial/ethnic discrimination measure for use in multiethnic health surveys. Ethn Dis 2009; 19:447-53. PubMed
  • Beckfield J,Krieger N. Epi + demos + cracy: Linking Political Systems and Priorities to the Magnitude of Health Inequities--Evidence, Gaps, and a Research Agenda. Epidemiol Rev 2009; 31:152-77. PubMed
  • Krieger N,Chen JT,Ware JH,Kaddour A. Race/ethnicity and breast cancer estrogen receptor status: impact of class, missing data, and modeling assumptions. Cancer Causes Control 2008; 19:1305-18. PubMed
  • Chen JT,Coull BA,Waterman PD,Schwartz J,Krieger N. Methodologic implications of social inequalities for analyzing health disparities in large spatiotemporal data sets: an example using breast cancer incidence data (Northern and Southern California, 1988--2002). Stat Med 2008; 27:3957-83. PubMed
  • 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 2008; 98:S20-5. PubMed
  • Krieger N. Hormone therapy and the rise and perhaps fall of US breast cancer incidence rates: critical reflections. Int J Epidemiol 2008; 37:627-37. PubMed
  • Chae DH, Takeuchi DT, Barbeau EM, Bennett GG, Lindsey J, Krieger N. Unfair Treatment, Racial/Ethnic Discrimination, Ethnic Identification, and Smoking Among Asian Americans in the National Latino and Asian American Study. Am J Public Health 2008; 98:485-92. PubMed
  • Krieger N. Proximal, distal, and the politics of causation: what's level got to do with it? Am J Public Health 2008; 98:221-30. PubMed
  • Bates LM, Acevedo-Garcia D, Alegría M, Krieger N. Immigration and generational trends in body mass index and obesity in the United States: results of the National Latino and Asian American Survey, 2002-2003. Am J Public Health 2008; 98:70-7. PubMed
  • Davey Smith G,Krieger N. Tackling health inequities. BMJ 2008; 337:a1526. PubMed
  • Rehkopf DH,Berkman LF,Coull B,Krieger N. The non-linear risk of mortality by income level in a healthy population: US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey mortality follow-up cohort, 1988-2001. BMC Public Health 2008; 8:383. PubMed
  • 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; 36:1173-80. PubMed
  • Quinn MM, Sembajwe G, Stoddard AM, Kriebel D, Krieger N, Sorensen G, Hartman C, Naishadham D, Barbeau EM. Social disparities in the burden of occupational exposures: results of a cross-sectional study. Am J Ind Med 2007; 50:861-75. PubMed
  • Krieger N. Why epidemiologists cannot afford to ignore poverty. Epidemiology 2007; 18:658-63. PubMed
  • Barbeau EM, Hartman C, Quinn MM, Stoddard AM, Krieger N. Methods for recruiting white, black, and hispanic working-class women and men to a study of physical and social hazards at work: the United for Health study. Int J Health Serv 2007; 37:127-44. PubMed
  • Rehkopf DH, Haughton LT, Chen JT, Waterman PD, Subramanian SV, Krieger N. Monitoring socioeconomic disparities in death: comparing individual-level education and area-based socioeconomic measures. Am J Public Health 2006; 96:2135-8. PubMed
  • Subramanian SV, Chen JT, Rehkopf DH, Waterman PD, Krieger N. Comparing individual- and area-based socioeconomic measures for the surveillance of health disparities: A multilevel analysis of Massachusetts births, 1989-1991. Am J Epidemiol 2006; 164:823-34. PubMed
  • Melchior M, Berkman LF, Kawachi I, Krieger N, Zins M, Bonenfant S, Goldberg M. Lifelong socioeconomic trajectory and premature mortality (35-65 years) in France: findings from the GAZEL Cohort Study. J Epidemiol Community Health 2006; 60:937-44. PubMed
  • 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; 83:1063-84. PubMed
  • Krieger N. A century of census tracts: health & the body politic (1906-2006). J Urban Health 2006; 83:355-61. PubMed
  • 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; 17:217-26. PubMed
  • 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; 36:51-85. PubMed
  • 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; 2:e162. PubMed
  • Subramanian SV, Chen JT, Rehkopf DH, Waterman PD, Krieger N. Racial disparities in context: a multilevel analysis of neighborhood variations in poverty and excess mortality among black populations in Massachusetts. Am J Public Health 2005; 95:260-5. PubMed
  • 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; 95:312-23. PubMed
  • 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; 93:1655-71. PubMed
  • Krieger N, Waterman PD, Chen JT, Soobader MJ, Subramanian SV. Monitoring socioeconomic inequalities in sexually transmitted infections, tuberculosis, and violence: geocoding and choice of area-based socioeconomic measures--the public health disparities geocoding project (US). Public Health Rep 2003; 118:240-60. PubMed
  • 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; 156:471-82. PubMed
  • 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; 92:1100-2. PubMed
  • Chen JT, Krieger N, Van Den Eeden SK, Quesenberry CP. Different slopes for different folks: socioeconomic and racial/ethnic disparities in asthma and hay fever among 173,859 U.S. men and women. Environ Health Perspect 2002; 110 Suppl 2:211-6. PubMed
  • Okechukwu CA, Krieger N, Chen J, Sorensen G, Li Y, Barbeau EM. The association of workplace hazards and smoking in a U.S. multiethnic working-class population. Public Health Rep ; 125:225-33. PubMed
  • Okechukwu C, Krieger N, Sorensen G, Li Y, Barbeau E. Testing hypothesized psychosocial mediators: lessons learned in the MassBUILT study .
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