Dr. Katherine Flegal is a distinguished epidemiologist whose groundbreaking work has reshaped understanding of obesity's relationship to health outcomes. She currently serves as a Consulting Professor at Stanford University School of Medicine following a nearly thirty-year career at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics. Born in Berkeley, California, she earned dual bachelor's degrees from the University of California, Berkeley, first in anthropology and later in food and nutrition, before completing her Ph.D. in epidemiology at Cornell University in 1982. Her unique interdisciplinary background spanning anthropology, nutrition, and statistics provided the foundation for her innovative approach to population health research.
Dr. Flegal is renowned for her rigorous epidemiological analyses of the relationship between body weight and mortality, particularly her controversial yet methodologically sound findings that challenged prevailing assumptions about obesity's health impacts. Her highly cited 2013 JAMA paper, which conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of nearly 100 studies involving over three million participants, demonstrated that overweight individuals had lower all-cause mortality than those in the normal weight category. This counterintuitive finding, which emerged from her meticulous analysis of nationally representative data, sparked what she described as all hell breaking loose and initiated the so-called obesity wars in public health discourse. Despite significant criticism from prominent researchers who dismissed her work as rubbish, her findings have withstood scientific scrutiny and contributed substantially to more nuanced understanding of weight-related health risks.
As one of the most highly cited scientists in obesity epidemiology according to Thomson Reuters, Dr. Flegal has profoundly influenced how researchers and policymakers approach weight-related health issues. Her methodological rigor and commitment to evidence-based science have established new standards for epidemiological research on body weight and mortality, despite facing concerted efforts by critics to discredit her work through public attacks and attempts to undermine her research integrity. Now at Stanford, she continues to contribute to the field while reflecting on gender dynamics in science, having documented how the Matilda effect has impacted women scientists' recognition compared to their male counterparts. Dr. Flegal's legacy endures through her transformative contributions to epidemiological methods and her unwavering dedication to scientific truth in the face of intense controversy.
