Fifty years of the Nurses' Health Studies: what daily habits did for women's health
Representative image: Fotorech / Pixabay
A review in The Lancet Obstetrics, Gynaecology, & Women's Health, highlighted in October 2026, sums up five decades of findings from the Nurses' Health Studies.
What Happened
Researchers at Mass General Brigham in the United States have published a review of nearly fifty years of findings from the Nurses' Health Studies, among the longest-running studies of women's health in the world. The paper, titled "The Nurses' Health Studies: a half-century of discovery in women's health", appears in The Lancet Obstetrics, Gynaecology, & Women's Health, and the hospital group highlighted it in a research spotlight in early October 2026. The lead author is Andrea Romanos-Nanclares of Mass General Brigham's Channing Division of Network Medicine, and the senior author is A. Heather Eliassen of Mass General Brigham and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The review draws together publications from 1984 to 2026 across all three study groups.
Key Facts
- The Nurses' Health Studies began in 1976 to look at the long-term effects of oral contraceptives.
- There are three cohorts, known as NHS, NHSII and NHS3; the first enrolled about 121,700 nurses in 1976 and the second about 116,430 in 1989.
- The review covers diet and lifestyle, cancer, heart and metabolic disease, reproductive health, mental health, environmental exposures, cancer survivorship and healthy ageing.
- According to the authors, combining a healthy diet, a healthy weight, regular physical activity and not smoking is linked to markedly lower risks of coronary heart disease and type 2 diabetes.
- The same combination of habits is also linked to a greater chance of healthy ageing, the review reports.
- Findings on dietary trans fats and heart disease from the studies helped inform the United States Food and Drug Administration's ban on industrial trans fats, the hospital group said.
- The review also says reproductive and hormonal factors, including the pill and menopausal hormone therapy, affect women's health across the life course.
Why It Matters
Most of what doctors tell women about preventing long-term illness rests on a small number of very large studies that followed the same people for decades. The Nurses' Health Studies are one of those foundations. Because the same women answered questionnaires over many years, researchers could link habits recorded long ago with illnesses that appeared much later.
The central message of the review is not a new drug or test but something every woman can act on: a few everyday habits, taken together, carry much of the benefit. Eating well, keeping a healthy weight, moving regularly and not smoking are each useful on their own, but the authors stress that the combination is associated with the largest drop in risk for heart disease and diabetes and with a better chance of ageing in good health.
For women juggling work, caregiving and their own wellbeing, this is a reminder that prevention does not need to be complicated. The same behaviours appear again and again across very different conditions, from heart disease to cognitive health, which means time spent on them serves several goals at once.
The review also shows how long-term research can change public policy. The link between trans fats and heart disease, which these cohorts helped establish, fed into the United States decision to remove industrial trans fats from food.
| Study | Year started | Approximate starting size |
|---|---|---|
| NHS | 1976 | 121,700 nurses |
| NHSII | 1989 | 116,430 nurses |
| NHS3 | 2010 | still recruiting |
Impact
Short-term: The review gives women and doctors a single, updated summary of what five decades of data say about lifestyle, hormones and long-term health.
Long-term: It strengthens the case for prevention built on simple habits, and for keeping long-running studies funded so that questions about later life, such as healthy ageing and survivorship, can be answered.
Who is affected: Women of all ages, especially those weighing choices about contraception, menopause treatment, diet and exercise, and the doctors and public health planners who advise them.
Key Takeaway
Five decades of data from the Nurses' Health Studies point to the same lesson: a healthy diet, a healthy weight, regular activity and not smoking, taken together, are linked to much lower risk of heart disease and diabetes and better ageing.
Questions and Answers
What are the Nurses' Health Studies?
They are three long-running studies of American nurses, the first begun in 1976, that track participants' habits and health over many years to find out what raises or lowers the risk of disease.
What is the main practical finding of the new review?
The authors report that combining a healthy diet, healthy weight, regular physical activity and not smoking is linked to markedly lower risks of coronary heart disease and type 2 diabetes and a greater likelihood of healthy ageing.
Did these studies change any rules?
Yes. According to Mass General Brigham, findings on trans fats and heart disease from the studies helped inform the US Food and Drug Administration's ban on industrial trans fats.
Are the findings relevant to women in India?
The participants were American nurses, so exact risks may differ, but the core habits the review highlights, such as diet, activity, weight and not smoking, are the same ones Indian health advice stresses.
Disclaimer: Prepared by the Peepals newsroom from publicly available sources with AI assistance. Information is accurate to the best of our knowledge at the time of publication and may change. Images may be representative. Not professional advice. Report an error via our contact page.
Sourced and fact-checked by the Peepals Global Editorial Team
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