Dr. Glorian Sorensen
glorian_sorensen@dfci.harvard.edu

Dr. Sorensen is the director of the Center for Community-Based Research and the director of the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center Risk Reduction Program. She is a sociologist with training in public health, and she has been with the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute since 1992.

Research interests

The core of Dr. Sorensen's research is randomized worksite- and community-based studies that test the effectiveness of theory-driven interventions targeting individual and organizational change. These interventions are designed to be effective for low income, multiethnic populations, including blue- and pink-collar workers.

Dr. Sorensen's research is based on the assumption that behavioral interventions will be most effective when they are embedded in the social context or environment in which people live and work. While risk-related behaviors and potential environmental exposures are disproportionately concentrated in lower socioeconomic status groups and segments of some ethnic and racial minorities, most programs to address cancer risk in these groups have met with limited success. Dr. Sorensen's research team aims to develop interventions for working class populations, for example, that are designed to take into account the social complexities that accompany having limited incomes, and are tailored to fit the needs of these populations. Dr. Sorensen's research has focused particularly on worksite cancer prevention interventions, with the aim of integrating programs targeting individual behaviors like smoking, with reductions in exposures to hazards on the job.

Recent publications

Sorensen G, Stoddard A, Hunt MK, Ockene JK, Hammond SK, Hebert JR, Himmelstein, Avrunin JS. Behavior change in a worksite cancer prevention intervention: The WellWorks study. American Journal of Public Health 1998; 88: 1685-1690.

Sorensen G, Stoddard A, Peterson K, Cohen N, Hunt MK, Palombo R, Stein E, Hebert J. Increasing fruit and vegetable consumption through worksites and families in the Treatwell: 5-a-Day study. American Journal of Public Health 1999; 89: 54-60.

Sorensen G, Stoddard A, Youngstrom R, Emmons K, Barbeau E, Khorasanizadeh F, Levenstein C. Local labor unions' positions on worksite tobacco control. American Journal of Public Health 2000; 90(4): 618-620

Sorensen G, Emmons K, Stoddard A, Linnan L. Do social influences contribute to occupational differences in smoking behaviors? American Journal of Health Promotion (in press).

Sorensen G. Worksite tobacco control programs: The role of occupational health. Respiratory Physiology (in press).