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Howard D. Sesso, ScD, MPH

Associate Director, Division of Preventive Medicine
Associate Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Associate Epidemiologist, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
hsesso@bwh.harvard.edu

Dr. Sesso specializes in the epidemiology and prevention of cardiovascular disease (CVD), including hypertension and obesity as major risk factors, as well as cancer. His research focuses on the role of vitamin and mineral supplements, along with nutritional biomarkers, on the prevention of chronic disease. Dr. Sesso is Associate Director of the Division of Preventive Medicine at BWH and is with Director of Nutrition Research and Co-Director of Hypertension Research. Dr. Sesso is also an expert in the design, methodology, and conduct of epidemiologic studies and randomized clinical trials. Dr. Sesso helps lead the Physicians’ Health Study, consisting of two separate completed clinical trials that have tested aspirin along with beta-carotene, vitamin E, vitamin C, and a multivitamin supplement on cardiovascular disease, cancer, and other chronic diseases in 29,071 men with multiple blood collections and decades of follow-up.  Dr. Sesso is also testing vitamin D and fish oil supplements on 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure and hypertension risk in an ancillary study of the VITamin D and OmegA-3 TriaL (VITAL) trial. Dr. Sesso is Co-Principal Investigator of the COcoa Supplement and Multivitamin Outcomes Study (COSMOS), a randomized, 2×2 factorial trial testing cocoa flavanol and multivitamin supplements in the prevention of CVD and cancer in 21,444 older women and men with 4 years of treatment and follow-up. He has also led completed and ongoing short-term trials of lycopene and magnesium supplementation on intermediate cardiovascular outcomes. Dr. Sesso has published more than 280 papers to date and teaches courses on clinical trials and epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Harvard Medical School and enjoys mentoring students and junior faculty.

BA: Stanford University
MPH: George Washington University
ScD: Harvard School of Public Health

RSS Full List of Publications

  • Sex Differences in Long COVID January 22, 2025
    CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: In this prospective cohort study of the NIH RECOVER-Adult cohort, female sex was associated with an increased risk of long COVID compared with male sex, and this association was age, pregnancy, and menopausal status dependent. These findings highlight the need to identify biological mechanisms contributing to sex specificity to facilitate risk stratification, […]
    Dimpy P Shah
  • 2024 Update of the RECOVER-Adult Long COVID Research Index December 18, 2024
    CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: The 2024 LC research index for adults builds on the 2023 index with additional data and symptoms to help researchers classify symptomatic LC and its symptom subtypes. Continued future refinement of the index will be needed as the understanding of LC evolves.
    Linda N Geng
  • Inflammation, Frailty, and Aspirin Use in the Physicians' Health Study: A Pilot Study November 22, 2024
    Whether anti-inflammatory medications such as aspirin can lower the risk of frailty is an active area of investigation. In previous studies, we reported that regular aspirin use started in midlife was associated with a lower risk of frailty at older age. We therefore sought to further examine the relationship between inflammatory biomarkers, frailty and aspirin […]
    D Gewurz
  • Measurement of circulating viral antigens post-SARS-CoV-2 infection in a multicohort study October 10, 2024
    OBJECTIVES: To determine the proportion of individuals with detectable antigen in plasma or serum after SARS-CoV-2 infection and the association of antigen detection with postacute sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC) symptoms.
    Zoe Swank
  • Physical activity before and after cancer diagnosis and mortality risk in three large prospective cohorts October 8, 2024
    CONCLUSIONS: Remaining active pre- and post-diagnosis and becoming active post-diagnosis may be associated with improvements in cancer survival, however, research is needed across diverse cancer populations.
    Cami N Christopher

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