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Andrea Romanos-Nanclares, Ph.D., of the Channing Division of Network Medicine within the Department of Medicine at Mass General Brigham, is the lead author of a paper published in The Lancet Obstetrics, Gynaecology, & Women's Health titled "The Nurses' Health Studies: a half-century of discovery in women's health." A. Heather Eliassen, ScD, of Mass General Brigham and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, is the senior author.

The Nurses' Health Studies (NHS, NHSII and NHS3) began in 1976 to investigate the long-term effects of oral contraceptives. They have since evolved into influential ongoing studies examining a broad range of factors affecting women's health and disease.

Unlike traditional research designs, the Nurses' Health Studies have provided a unique opportunity to prospectively follow large populations of women over decades while repeatedly measuring diet, lifestyle, reproductive factors, medications, environmental exposures and other health-related factors.

This approach has allowed researchers to study not only whether certain exposures are associated with disease, but also how timing, duration and changes in those exposures influence health across the life course.

The studies have also continually incorporated new technologies, biospecimens, biomarkers and statistical methods. This combination of long-term follow-up and methodological innovation has generated evidence that has had a profound impact on society—shaping clinical guidelines, public health recommendations, health policies, risk prediction and disease prevention across many areas of medicine.

The researchers examined contributions across diet and lifestyle, cancer, cardiovascular and metabolic disease, reproductive health, mental health, environmental exposures, cancer survivorship and healthy aging, among others.

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