Zhao Chen

Photo of Zhao Chen

Zhao Chen

Department Chair, Epidemiology and Biostatistics
Professor, Public Health
Professor, Anthropology
Professor, Statistics-GIDP
Distinguished Professor, Public Health
Professor, BIO5 Institute
Primary Department
Epidemiology and Biostatistics
Department Affiliations
Epidemiology and Biostatistics
Public Health Administration
BIO5 Institute
Contact
(520) 626-9011
zchen@arizona.edu

Research Interest

Zhao Chen, PhD, MPH, has been focused on epidemiologic research of women's health and aging-related health conditions. She has a wealth of experience in studying body composition assessments, breast cancer risk factors, fracture risk in cancer survivors, osteoporosis prevention, epidemiology of anemia, biomarker and genetic variations for chronic diseases and sarcopenia measurements among women and elderly from different ethnic backgrounds. She is a member of the Arizona Cancer Center, Arizona Center on Aging, Arizona Arthritis Center and BIO5. She is a funded researcher by the National Health Institute (NIH), and has served on numerous scientific study sections for the NIH and other funding agencies nationally and internationally. Dr. Chen also has an affiliated faculty appointment with the School of Anthropology.Her work with the U.S. Women's Health Initiative study has produced several significant research papers on epidemiologic methodology and osteoporosis risk factors in diverse populations. Her findings on increased fracture risk among breast cancer survivors have caught wide public attention, thus making a significant contribution to the prevention of fractures in the large number of breast cancer survivors. Her research on mammographic density as a proxy of breast cancer risk has provided direct evidences on significant associations between body composition, dietary intake, and mammographic density. The study findings on changes in body composition and hip structural geometry with intervention and aging have contributed to osteoporosis prevention and healthy aging research. Currently, she is leading investigations on longitudinal changes in bone strength and skeletal muscle loss associated with aging and hormone and calcium/vitamin D interventions. Her research on biomarkers and genetic variations for sarcopenia is supported by the National Institute of Aging/NIH. She has also received NIH funding to study anemia and its relationship with muscle loss, physical function, and mortality in Mexican American, Africa American, Native American, Asian, and Non-Hispanic white postmenopausal women. In the recent years, she has been working with several large worldwide consortiums on genome-wide association studies for sarcopenia and anemia.Besides teaching in classes, Dr. Chen has been providing research training opportunities to students especially minority students from underserved populations. Under her direction, graduate students in her laboratory are conducting research in many aspects of women's health and aging. Some examples of the research areas include arthritis and osteoporosis in women, anemia and cardiovascular diseases, physical functional assessments in the elderly, and relationship of growth factors with breast cancer risk. With the growing elderly population in the United States, osteoporosis, sarcopenia and anemia have become more significant public health problems. In responding to the community's needs, she frequently gives community health lectures and provides opportunities of health screening and education to publics. Dr. Chen is working on building a strong research and health promotion program to contribute to healthy aging in people from all ethnic backgrounds.

Publications

Klimentidis, Y. C., Chen, Z., Arora, A., & Hsu, C. (2014). Association of physical activity with lower type 2 diabetes incidence is weaker among individuals at high genetic risk. Diabetologia, 57(12), 2530-4.
BIO5 Collaborators
Zhao Chen, Yann C Klimentidis

We examined whether or not the association of physical activity with type 2 diabetes incidence differs according to several types of genetic susceptibility.

Going, S. B., Chen, Z., Alexander, G. E., Mandarino, L. J., Garcia, D. O., Bea, J. W., Raichlen, D. A., & Klimentidis, Y. C. (2017). Genome-wide association study of habitual physical activity in over 277,000 UK Biobank participants indentifies novel variants and genetic correlations with chronotype and obesity related traits. International Journal of Obesity.
BIO5 Collaborators
Zhao Chen, Scott B Going, Yann C Klimentidis
Chen, Z. (2016). Large Meta-Analysis of Genome Wide Association Studies Identifies Five Loci for Lean Body Mass.. Nature Communications.

M. Carola Zillikens1-2, 152, Serkalem Demissie3, 152, Yi-Hsiang Hsu5-7,152, 153, Laura M Yerges-Armstrong4,152, Wen-Chi Chou5-6,12, Lisette Stolk1-2, Gregory Livshits9-10, Linda Broer13, Toby Johnson14-16, Daniel L Koller17, Zoltán Kutalik14-15, Jian'an Luan18, Ida Malkin9, Janina S Ried19, Albert V Smith20,31, Gudmar Thorleifsson21, Liesbeth Vandenput22, Jing Hua Zhao18, Weihua Zhang23-24, Ali Aghdassi79, Kristina Åkesson25-26, Najaf Amin13,Leslie J. Baier137, Inês Barroso27-29, David A Bennett30, Lars Bertram88, 138, Rainer Biffar32, Murielle Bochud33, Michael Boehnke129, Ingrid B Borecki34-35, Aron S Buchman30, Liisa Byberg37, Harry Campbell38, Natalia Campos Obanda1, Jane A Cauley39, Peggy M Cawthon40, Henna Cederberg41, Zhao Chen42, Nam H Cho43, Hyung Jin Choi44, Melina Claussnitzer 5-6, 11-12, 91,128, Francis Collins130, Steven R Cummings46, Philip L De Jager 6, 47,49, Ilja Demuth50-51, Rosalie AM Dhonukshe-Rutten52, Luda Diatchenko48,53, Gudny Eiriksdottir20, Anke W Enneman1, Mike Erdos130 , Johan G Eriksson54-58, Joel Eriksson22, Karol Estrada22, Daniel S Evans40, Mary F Feitosa34, Mao Fu59, Melissa Garcia60, Christian Gieger19, Thomas Girke142 , Nicole L Glazer62, Harald Grallert61, Jagvir Grewal24,63, Bok-Ghee Han64, Robert L. Hanson137, Caroline Hayward65, Albert Hofman2,13, Eric P. Hoffman149, Georg Homuth67, Wen-Chi Hsueh137, Monica J. Hubal144-145, Alan Hubbard68, Kim M. Huffman146, Lise B Husted69, Thomas Illig61,70, Erik Ingelsson71, 147, Till Ittermann72, John-Olov Jansson73, Joanne M Jordan74, Antti Jula58, Magnus Karlsson75-76, Kay-Tee Khaw77, Tuomas O. Kilpeläinen18,140, Norman Klopp61,70, Jacqueline SL Kloth1, Heikki A Koistinen101,133-135, William E. Kraus146, Stephen Kritchevsky78, Teemu Kuulasmaa41, Johanna Kuusisto41 , Markku Laakso41, Jari Lahti81, Thomas Lang82, Bente L Langdahl69, Lenore J Launer60, Jong-Young Lee64, Markus M Lerch79, Joshua R Lewis83-84, Lars Lind71, Cecilia Lindgren85, Yongmei Liu86, Tian Liu87-88, Youfang Liu89, Östen Ljunggren71, Mattias Lorentzon22, Robert N Luben90, William Maixner53, Fiona E McGuigan25, Carolina Medina-Gomez1-2,13 , Thomas Meitinger19,91, Håkan Melhus71, Dan Mellström22, Simon Melov92, Karl Michaëlsson37, Braxton D Mitchell4, 150, Andrew P Morris85,148, Leif Mosekilde69, Anne Newman93, Carrie M Nielson94, Jeffrey R. O'Connell4, Ben A Oostra95-96, Eric S Orwoll94, Aarno Palotie97-98, Stephan Parker136, Munro Peacock99, Markus Perola58, Annette Peters19,61, Ozren Polasek100, Richard L Prince83-84, Katri Räikkönen81, Stuart H Ralston102, Samuli Ripatti58,85,97, John A Robbins104, Jerome I Rotter141, Igor Rudan38, Veikko Salomaa58, Suzanne Satterfield105, Eric E Schadt103, Sabine Schipf72, Laura Scott129, Joban Sehmi24,63, Jian Shen94, Chan Soo Shin44, Gunnar Sigurdsson31,106, Shad Smith151, Nicole Soranzo85, Alena Stančáková41, Elisabeth Steinhagen-Thiessen50, Elizabeth A Streeten4,107, Unnur Styrkarsdottir21, Karin MA Swart109, Sian-Tsung Tan24,63, Mark A Tarnopolsky110, Patricia Thompson111, Cynthia A Thomson42, Unnur Thorsteinsdottir21,31, Emmi Tikkanen58,97, Gregory J Tranah40, Jaakko Tuomilehto58,131,132, Natasja M van Schoor109, Arjun Verma24, Peter Vollenweider112, Henry Völzke72, Jean Wactawski-Wende113, Mark Walker114, Michael N Weedon66, Ryan Welch129, H.-Erich Wichman19, 115-116, Elisabeth Widen97, Frances MK Williams10, James F Wilson38,65, Nicole C Wright80, Weijia Xie66, Lei Yu30, Yanhua Zhou3, John C Chambers24,36,108,117, Angela Döring19, Cornelia M van Duijn13,96, Michael J Econs118, Vilmundur Gudnason20,31, Jaspal S Kooner24,63,117, Bruce M Psaty119,120, Timothy D Spector10, Kari Stefansson21,31, Fernando Rivadeneira1-2,13, André G Uitterlinden1-2,13, Nicholas J Wareham18, Vicky Ossowski137, Dawn Waterworth122, Ruth J.F. Loos123-126, David Karasik5-6,127,153, Tamara B Harris60,153, Claes Ohlsson22,153, Douglas P Kiel5-6, 128,153Large Meta-Analysis of Genome Wide Association Studies Identifies Five Loci for Lean Body Mass. Nature Communications (Accepted for publication Nov 9th 2016)

Chen, Z. (2015). Postmenopausal Risk for Mortality Based on BMI and Body Composition.. American Journal of Epidemiology, 182(7), 585-596.

Bea, J. W., Thomson, C. A., Wertheim, B. C., Nicholas, J. S., Ernst, K. C., Hu, C., ... Chen, Z. (2015). Risk of mortality according to body mass index and body composition among postmenopausal women. American Journal of Epidemiology, 182(7), 585-596. 10.1093/aje/kwv103

Chen, Z., & Chen, Z. (2017). INCIDENT ATRIAL FIBRILLATION AND THE RISK OF FRACTURE IN THE CARDIOVASCULAR HEALTH STUDY.. International Osteoporosis, 28(2), 719-725.

AdvancedHelpResult FiltersFormat: AbstractSend toOsteoporos Int. 2017 Feb;28(2):719-725. doi: 10.1007/s00198-016-3778-1. Epub 2016 Oct 7.Incident atrial fibrillation and the risk of fracture in the cardiovascular health study.Wallace ER1, Siscovick DS2,3,4, Sitlani CM3, Dublin S4,5, Mitchell P6, Robbins JA7, Fink HA8,9, Cauley JA10, Bůžková P11, Carbone L12, Chen Z13, Heckbert SR4,5.Author informationAbstractIn this prospective cohort of 4462 older adults, incident atrial fibrillation (AF) was not statistically significantly associated with subsequent risk of incident fracture.INTRODUCTION: AF is associated with stroke, heart failure, dementia, and death, but its association with fracture is unknown. Therefore, we examined the association of incident AF with the risk of subsequent fracture in the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS) cohort.METHODS: Of the CHS participants aged ≥65 years, 4462 were followed between 1991 and 2009, mean follow-up 8.8 years. Incident AF was identified by annual study electrocardiogram (ECG), hospital discharge diagnosis codes, or Medicare claims. Fractures of the hip, distal forearm, humerus, or pelvis were identified using hospital discharge diagnosis codes or Medicare claims. We used Cox proportional hazard models to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) and 95 % confidence intervals (CIs) for the association between incident AF (time-varying) and the risk of subsequent fracture. We also evaluated whether AF was associated with risk of sustaining a fall.RESULTS: Crude incident fracture rate was 22.9 per 1000 person-years in participants with AF and 17.7 per 1000 person-years in participants without AF. Individuals with incident AF were not at significantly higher risk of hip fracture (adjusted HR = 1.09, 95 % CI 0.83-1.42) or fracture at any selected site (adjusted HR = 0.97, 95 % CI 0.77-1.22) or risk of sustaining a fall (adjusted HR = 1.00, 95 % CI = 0.87-1.16) compared with those without AF.CONCLUSION: In this cohort of older, community-dwelling adults, incident AF was not shown to be associated with falls or hip or other fractures.KEYWORDS: Arrhythmia; Atrial fibrillation; Fracture; Hip fracturePMID: 27714443 PMCID: PMC5782802 DOI: 10.1007/s00198-016-3778-1 Free PMC Article

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