
Frank SpeizerBrigham and Women's Hospital | BWH · Department of Medicine
Frank Speizer
MD
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Introduction
Skills and Expertise
Publications
Publications (770)
Importance
Participation in American-style football (ASF) has been linked to chronic traumatic encephalopathy neuropathological change (CTE-NC), a specific neuropathologic finding that can only be established at autopsy. Despite being a postmortem diagnosis, living former ASF players may perceive themselves to have CTE-NC. At present, the proportio...
American-style football (ASF) players experience repetitive head impacts which may result in chronic traumatic encephalopathy neuropathologic change (CTE-NC). At present, a definitive diagnosis of CTE-NC requires the identification of localized hyperphosphorylated Tau (p-Tau) after death via immunohistochemistry. Some studies suggest that positron...
Background:
Despite the potential protective effect of a plant-based diet against chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), it remains unknown whether intake of different types of plant foods is beneficial for COPD. Our aims were to determine whether adherence to the healthful version of a plant-based diet (healthful Plant-based Diet Index (hP...
Objective
To examine the relationships between age, healthspan and chronic illness among former professional American-style football (ASF) players.
Methods
We compared age-specific race-standardised and body mass index-standardised prevalence ratios of arthritis, dementia/Alzheimer’s disease, hypertension and diabetes among early adult and middle-...
Importance:
Increased risk of neurological and psychiatric conditions after traumatic brain injury (TBI) is well-defined. However, cardiovascular and endocrine comorbidity risk after TBI in individuals without these comorbidities and associations with post-TBI mortality have received little attention.
Objective:
To assess the incidence of cardio...
Background
Participation in American-style football (ASF), one of the most popular sports worldwide, has been associated with adverse health outcomes. However, prior clinical studies of former ASF players have been limited by reliance on subjective self-reported data, inadequate sample size, or focus on a single disease process in isolation.
Objec...
Introduction
Former American style football players (ASF players) have recognized health concerns associated with prior sport participation. It remains unknown whether categorizations of current health conditions, referred in this report as afflictions (conceptually framed as neurocognitive, cardiovascular, cardiometabolic, sleep apnea, and chronic...
While chronic neurological effects from concussion have been widely studied, little is known about possible links between concussion and long-term medical and behavioral comorbidities. We performed a retrospective cohort study of 9,205 adult concussion patients, matched to non-concussion controls from a hospital-based electronic medical registry. P...
Objective:
To evaluate the associations between personal use of permanent hair dyes and cancer risk and mortality.
Design:
Prospective cohort study.
Setting and participants:
117 200 women enrolled in the Nurses' Health Study, an ongoing prospective cohort study of female nurses in the United States. The women were free of cancer at baseline,...
Background Personal use of permanent hair dyes has been discussed and examined as a potential risk factor for a variety of cancers. Epidemiological evidence regarding the relationship between personal use of permanent hair dyes and cancer risk and mortality remains inconclusive.
Methods The Nurses' Health Study is an ongoing prospective cohort stud...
Introduction:
Recent attention to consequences of head trauma among former professional American-style football players has increased the likelihood that former players and their healthcare providers attribute neurocognitive effects to these exposures. However, in addition to head trauma, many potentially modifiable risk factors are associated wit...
Purpose
Race differences in health are pervasive in the United States. American-style football players are a racially diverse group with social status and other benefits that may reduce health disparities. Whether race disparities in health exist among former professional football players, and whether they differ by era of play, is unknown.
Method...
Objective
American‐style football (ASF) has gained attention because of possible links between repetitive head injury and neurodegenerative diseases. While post‐mortem pathologic changes consistent with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) have been reported in ASF players, there are currently no established pre‐mortem diagnostic criteria for CTE...
Background:
Exposure to disinfectants among healthcare workers has been associated with respiratory health effects, in particular, asthma. However, most studies are cross-sectional and the role of disinfectant exposures in asthma development requires longitudinal studies. We investigated the association between occupational exposure to disinfectan...
Clinical practice strongly relies on patients' self-report. Former professional American-style football players are hesitant to seek help for mental health problems but may be more willing to report cognitive symptoms. We sought to assess the association between cognitive symptoms and diagnosed mental health problems and quality of life among a coh...
Importance
Exposure to disinfectants in health care workers has been associated with respiratory health outcomes, including asthma. Despite the biological plausibility of an association between disinfectants (irritant chemicals) and risk of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), available data are sparse.
Objective
To investigate the associ...
Background
Former American football players have a higher prevalence of cognitive impairment than that of the US general population. It remains unknown what aspects of playing football are associated with neuropsychiatric outcomes.
Hypothesis
It was hypothesized that seasons of professional football, playing position, and experience of concussions...
Importance
Small studies suggest that head trauma in men may be associated with low testosterone levels and sexual dysfunction through mechanisms that likely include hypopituitarism secondary to ischemic injury and pituitary axonal tract damage. Athletes in contact sports may be at risk for pituitary insufficiencies or erectile dysfunction (ED) bec...
Background:
Processed meat intake may increase the risk of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). However, the magnitude of this association may depend on smoking and unhealthy diet. Our aims were to determine whether processed meat intake increased the risk of COPD among middle-aged women, and to estimate the combined impact of high proces...
The Football Players Health Study at Harvard University (FPHS) is a unique transdisciplinary, strategic initiative addressing the challenges of former players’ health after having participated in American style football (ASF). The whole player focused FPHS is designed to deepen understanding of the benefits and risks of participation in ASF, identi...
Importance
Studies of American-style football players have suggested lower overall mortality rates compared with general populations, but with possibly increased neurodegenerative mortality. However, comparisons with general populations can introduce bias. This study compared mortality between US National Football League (NFL) and US Major League B...
Background
The long‐term health consequences of participation in American style football (ASF) are not well understood.
Methods
We conducted a retrospective cohort study of men who had played in the NFL after 1960. Participants were studied using a standardized self‐administered questionnaire designed to determine both the exposure history to ASF...
We have enrolled a cohort of former National Football League players (n = 3,506) who played since 1960 to assess potential long term health consequences associated with participating in the sport. Each participant has completed a self-administered questionnaire including reporting of physician-diagnosed health conditions. One of the early assessmen...
Background:
Professional American-style football players are among the largest athletes across contemporary sporting disciplines. Weight gain during football participation is common, but the health implications of this early-life weight gain remain incompletely understood. We sought to define weight trajectories of former professional American-sty...
Animal and human data have suggested that shift work involving circadian disruption may be carcinogenic for humans, but epidemiological evidence for colorectal cancer is still limited. We investigated the association of rotating night shift work and colorectal cancer risk in two prospective female cohorts, the Nurses' Health Study (NHS) and NHS2, w...
Objectives
To investigate the association between occupational exposure to disinfectants/antiseptics used for hand hygiene and asthma control in nurses.
Methods
In 2014, we invited female nurses with asthma drawn from the Nurses’ Health Study II to complete two supplemental questionnaires on their occupation and asthma (cross-sectional study, resp...
Disinfectant use has been associated with adverse respiratory effects among healthcare workers. However, the specific harmful agents have not been elucidated. We examined the association between occupational exposure to disinfectants and asthma control in the Nurses' Health Study II, a large cohort of female nurses.
Nurses with asthma were invited...
The aim of this study was to evaluate the reproducibility and validity of a 61-item semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire used in a large prospective study among women. This form W88 administered twice to 173 particIpants at an interval of approximate'y one year (1980-1981), and four one-week diet records for each subject were collected dur...
Background:
Disinfectant use among healthcare workers has been associated with respiratory disorders, especially asthma. We aimed to describe disinfectants used by U.S. nurses, and to investigate qualitative and quantitative differences according to workplace characteristics and region.
Methods:
Disinfectant use was assessed by questionnaire in...
Healthcare workers have a higher risk of work-related asthma, partly attributed to exposure to disinfectants used for surfaces and medical instrument cleaning. Hand hygiene practices also involve exposure to disinfectants. However, the potential respiratory risks associated with hand hygiene among healthcare workers are unknown. We investigated thi...
Objectives
Occupational exposure to disinfectants is associated with work-related asthma, especially in healthcare workers. However, little is known about the specific products involved. To evaluate disinfectant exposures, we designed job-exposure (JEM) and job-task-exposure (JTEM) matrices, which are thought to be less prone to differential miscla...
We have summarized the evolution of the Nurses’ Health Study (NHS), a prospective cohort study of 121 700 married registered nurses launched in 1976; NHS II, which began in 1989 and enrolled 116 430 nurses; and NHS3, which began in 2010 and has ongoing enrollment.
Over 40 years, these studies have generated long-term, multidimensional data, includi...
Importance:
Prospective studies linking shift work to coronary heart disease (CHD) have been inconsistent and limited by short follow-up.
Objective:
To determine whether rotating night shift work is associated with CHD risk.
Design, setting, and participants:
Prospective cohort study of 189,158 initially healthy women followed up over 24 years...
Healthcare workers are at higher risk of work-related asthma, possibly due to occupational exposure to disinfectants. However, the association between occupational exposure to specific disinfectants and asthma control is not known. We investigated this issue in the Nurses' Health Study II, a large prospective cohort study of U.S. female nurses enro...
Occupational exposure to disinfectants is associated with work-related asthma, especially in healthcare workers. However, little is known about the specific products involved. In epidemiologic studies, assessment of exposure by job-exposure matrices (JEM) is less prone to differential misclassification bias than self-report.
We designed JEM and job...
Vitiligo is a common depigmenting skin disorder characterized by acquired, idiopathic, progressive depigmentation of the skin and hair (1) . Vitiligo is one of the most prevalent pigmentary disorders worldwide, with incidence rates varying between 0.1-2% in populations of different ages, races, ethnicities or skin colors(1,2) . Vitiligo is caused b...
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is among the five leading causes of death in the developed world and is a rapidly rising cause of death in most other countries.1 Cigarette smoking is clearly the predominant cause of the development of COPD, but there has been speculation for some time that other factors need to be considered in assessi...
To examine whether a mismatch between chronotype (i.e., preferred sleep timing) and work schedule is associated with type 2 diabetes risk.
In the Nurses' Health Study 2, we followed 64,615 women from 2005 to 2011. Newly developed type 2 diabetes was the outcome measure (n = 1,452). A question on diurnal preference ascertained chronotype in 2009; ro...
Nurses are at increased risk of occupational asthma, an observation that may be related to disinfectants exposure. Whether asthma history influences job type or job changes among nurses is unknown. We investigated this issue in a large cohort of nurses.
The Nurses' Health Study II is a prospective study of US female nurses enrolled in 1989 (ages 24...
Mortality among current smokers is 2 to 3 times as high as that among persons who never smoked. Most of this excess mortality is believed to be explained by 21 common diseases that have been formally established as caused by cigarette smoking and are included in official estimates of smoking-attributable mortality in the United States. However, if...
Despite mechanistic data that linked fish and omega-3 (n-3) PUFAs with lower risk of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), epidemiologic data remain scarce. Fish and n-3 PUFAs are an important component of the prudent dietary pattern that is thought to be protective in the onset of COPD.
We examined the role of fish and PUFA intakes on risk...
Rotating night shift work imposes circadian strain and is linked to the risk of several chronic diseases.
To examine associations between rotating night shift work and all-cause; cardiovascular disease (CVD); and cancer mortality in a prospective cohort study of 74,862 registered U.S. nurses from the Nurses' Health Study.
Lifetime rotating night sh...
Objective To determine whether use of oral contraceptives is associated with all cause and cause specific mortality.
Design Prospective cohort study.
Setting Nurses’ Health Study, data collected between 1976 and 2012.
Population 121 701 participants were prospectively followed for 36 years; lifetime oral contraceptive use was recorded biennially fr...
Introduction
Un risque eleve d’asthme a ete observe chez les infirmieres et pourrait etre lie a l’exposition aux desinfectants. Nous avons etudie l’influence de l’asthme sur le type et les changements de metier chez les infirmieres chez 98 048 femmes participant a la Nurses’ Health Study II, une etude prospective americaine d’infirmieres suivies de...
To assess the associations between operating room (OR) nursing, a category of health care workers at high risk of exposure to various inhaled agents, and asthma severity/control among women with asthma.
The level of severity/control in nurses with prevalent doctor-diagnosed asthma in 1998/2000 was compared, using nominal logistic regression, in OR...
Contaminants which reflect exposure to automobile exhaust, including nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, total hydrocarbons, respirable particulates, and lead, in addition to the general contaminant, sulfur dioxide, were sampled at traffic officer work stations in Boston. Sampling was conducted with a portable instrument which could be positioned at...
Respiratory questionnaires (ATS-DLD-78) were administered to 5557 adult women in a rural area of Western Pennsylvania to evaluate the health effects of air pollution resulting from coal combustion. Air pollution data were derived from 17 air quality monitor sites and stratified to define low, medium, and high pollution areas. The means of 4 yr (197...
Studies of the impact of long-term exposure to outdoor air pollution on the prevalence of respiratory symptoms and lung function in children have yielded mixed results, partly related to differences in study design, exposure assessment, confounder selection and data analysis.
We assembled respiratory health and exposure data for >45,000 children fr...
In 1844, before a large medical audience in London, John Hutchinson demonstrated the use of measurements of pulmonary function to predict disease. In contrast to standard practice at that time, he conducted an epidemiological investigation that would have been acceptable by today's standards, in which he examined over 2000 people and contrasted hea...
Asia is undergoing economic development at a rapid rate, resulting in levels of urban air pollution in many cities that rival the levels that existed in Europe and North America in the first decades of the 20th century. This development is also transforming the demographic and epidemiologic characteristics of the population in ways that are likely...
Studies of folate intake and colorectal cancer risk have been inconsistent. We examined the relation with colon cancer risk in a series of 13 prospective studies.
Study- and sex-specific relative risks (RRs) were estimated from the primary data using Cox proportional hazards models and then pooled using a random-effects model.
Among 725,134 partici...
There is increasing evidence suggesting that female hormones may play a significant role in lung cancer development. We evaluated the associations between reproductive factors, exogenous hormone use, and lung cancer incidence in the Nurses' Health Study.
We assessed age at menopause, age at menarche, type of menopause, parity, age at first birth, p...
Studies of the relationships between low socio-economic status and impaired lung function were conducted mainly in Western European countries and North America. East-West differences remain unexplored. Associations between parental education and lung function were explored using data on 24,010 school-children from eight cross-sectional studies cond...
Inconsistent effects of gas cooking on lung function have been reported. In a previous study from Austria, we demonstrated a significant, though small, reduction of lung function parameters in children living in homes with gas stoves. We used a larger international database to check if this finding can be generalised.
To study the relative impact o...
Ambient particulate pollution and traffic have been linked to myocardial infarction and cardiac death risk. Possible mechanisms include autonomic cardiac dysfunction.
In a repeated-measures study of 46 patients 43-75 years of age, we investigated associations of central-site ambient particulate pollution, including black carbon (BC) (a marker for r...
The relationship of fine particulate matter < 2.5 microm in diameter (PM(2.5)) air pollution with mortality and cardiovascular disease is well established, with more recent long-term studies reporting larger effect sizes than earlier long-term studies. Some studies have suggested the coarse fraction, particles between 2.5 and 10 microm (PM(10-2.5))...
Particulate pollution has been linked to risk for cardiac death; possible mechanisms include pollution-related increases in cardiac electrical instability. T-wave alternans (TWA) is a marker of cardiac electrical instability measured as differences in the magnitude between adjacent T waves. In a repeated-measures study of 48 patients aged 43 to 75...
This chapter traces the development of the epidemiology of chronic respiratory disease. The modern era of the study of the epidemiology of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) did not blossom until the middle of the 20th century. Before that time clinicians generally believed that much of the symptomatology associated with the disease repre...
Adverse health effects of exposures to acute air pollution have been well studied. Fewer studies have examined effects of chronic exposure. Previous studies used exposure estimates for narrow time periods and were limited by the geographic distribution of pollution monitors. This study examined the association of chronic particulate exposures with...
The association of particulate matter (PM) with cardiovascular morbidity and mortality is well documented. PM-induced ischemia is considered a potential mechanism linking PM to adverse cardiovascular outcomes.
In a repeated-measures study including 5979 observations on 48 patients 43 to 75 years of age, we investigated associations of ambient pollu...
Therapy with inhaled corticosteroids (ICSs) decreases the risk of asthma exacerbations. Recent studies have suggested that ICS therapy also may decrease the risk of cardiovascular disease, and perhaps of all-cause mortality. We examined this hypothesis in a large, well-characterized cohort of asthmatic women.
In 1976, the Nurses' Health Study enrol...
Aspirin may reduce the risk of cancer at some sites but its effect at the lung is unclear. We prospectively examined associations between aspirin use and risk of lung cancer in 109,348 women in the Nurses' Health study from 1980 to 2004. During this time, 1,360 lung cancers were documented in participants 36-82 years of age. Aspirin use and smoking...
Epidemiologic studies have indicated that a diet rich in fruit, antioxidants, and n-3 fatty acids may contribute to optimal respiratory health. We investigated whether low dietary nutrient intakes were associated with lower pulmonary function and higher reporting of respiratory symptoms in adolescents.
We examined the association of dietary factors...
The authors tested the hypothesis that short stature predicts adult-onset asthma independent of obesity among women in the Nurses' Health Study. Height, weight, and physician-diagnosed asthma were assessed with validated questionnaire items. Proportional hazard models adjusted separately for weight and body mass index. The rate of newly diagnosed a...
Objectives: This paper evaluates the relation of tooth loss to incidence of coronary heart disease in two large cohort studies. Methods: Participants included 41,407 men and 58,974 women free of any cardiovascular diseases at baseline. We recorded 1,654 incident coronary heart disease events (562 fatal events) among men during 12 years of follow-up...
Smoke generated during laser surgery and electrocautery contains respiratory irritants and human carcinogens. Although laboratory and animal studies have demonstrated that this smoke has inflammatory and mutagenic potential, no population-based studies of the health effects of exposure to surgical smoke have been published. We examined the associat...
This project involves several tasks designed to take advantage of (1) a very extensive air pollution monitoring system that is operating ..n the Chestnut Ridge.region of Western Pennsylvania and (2) -the very well developed analytic dispersion models that have been previously fine-tuned to this particular area.. The major task in this project is to...
Translation of the Abstract into Hungarian by S. Kantor
(102 KB PDF)
Translation of the Abstract into Chinese by L. Ling
(188 KB PDF)