Discipline(s):
Social Epidemiology, Epidemiology, Public Health

Area(s) of Expertise:
Visual Methods, Urban Health, Health Disparities, Material Resources, Housing, Food Insecurity, Financial Strain, Cardiovascular Disease

E-Mail:
carolyncannu@gmail.com

Background:
Carolyn Cannuscio is a social epidemiologist by training, a chronic disease epidemiologist in practice, and a teacher/learner at heart. During her undergraduate education in a Health and Society program at Brown University, Dr. Cannuscio caught the epidemiology bug through exposure to classes that examined environment, behavior, and disease. She then pursued social epidemiology training at the Harvard School of Public Health, where she worked with the Nurses’ Health and Health Professionals Studies investigators to examine the health effects of women’s employment status, social ties, and caregiving responsibilities. Recently, her work at Merck Research Labs examined determinants of cardiovascular risk, with a focus on the widely used COX-2 inhibitors. Her collaborative research on Vioxx contributed evidence of increased heart attack risk in users of that drug, which was removed from the market in the fall of 2004. During her tenure as an RWJ Health and Society Scholar, Dr. Cannuscio plans to examine social factors that promote lifelong health and vital involvement in an aging population. She is particularly interested in community development strategies, housing options, and policy initiatives that foster health, sustain high functional status, and enrich quality of life for families--and especially for elders. Over the course of her career, Dr. Cannuscio hopes to build the field of population health by engaging undergraduates in dialogue on the social determinants of health.

Journal Articles:
Click here for a list of Carolyn Cannuscio's available publications in PubMed.