I studied statistics at the Universities of Dortmund, Germany, and Sheffield, England, and received a diploma in Statistics in 1983 and a Ph.D. in Biostatistics 1987 from Dortmund University. In 1993 I habilitated in Epidemiology and Medical Biometry at Heidelberg University.

Projects & Grants

NAKO Gesundheitsstudie (German National Cohort), funded by BMBF and others

Other scientific projects & initiatives

I am one of the founding scientists of the German National Cohort (NAKO Gesundheitsstudie), the largest German prospective cohort study with 205.000 participants. I was PI for the study center Hamburg and Co-PI for the study center Mannheim. Among the larger studies I performed are investigations on mortality patterns and risk factors for childhood mortality in African countries where I had close collaborations with the Health and Demographic Surveillance Site (HDSS) site in Nouna, Burkina Faso and with the INDEPTH network headquarter in Accra, Ghana. I also performed several epidemiological case-control and cohort studies on occupational, lifestyle and genetic factors for various diseases, such as cancers, stroke and others, as well as studies on mortality and incidence patterns of migrants in Germany.

Publications

Ten recent Publications: 

• Breastfeeding and Risk of Multiple Sclerosis: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Observational Studies.
  Holz A, Riefflin M, Heesen C, Riemann-Lorenz K, Obi N, Becher H. Neuroepidemiology. 2022;56(6):391-401. doi: 10.1159/000526895. Epub 2022 Sep 12
• The bias from heaping on risk estimation: effect of age at diagnosis of hypertension on risk of subsequent cardiovascular comorbidities.
  Jaeschke L, Becher M, Velásquez IM, Ahrens W, Bächle C, Baurecht H, Fricke J, Greiser KH, Günther K, Heier M, Karch A, Kluttig A, Krist L, Leitzmann M, Michels K, Mikolajczyk R, Peters A, Schipf S, Völzke H, Pischon T, Becher H. Ann Epidemiol. 2022 Oct;74:84-96. doi: 10.1016/j.annepidem.2022.07.012. Epub 2022 Aug 5
• Diabetes prevalence and risk factors of early-onset adult diabetes: results from the Indonesian family life survey.
  Tanoey J, Becher H. Glob Health Action. 2021 Jan 1;14(1):2001144. doi: 10.1080/16549716.2021.2001144
• Regional Deprivation, Stroke Incidence, and Stroke Care—An Analysis of Billing and Quality Assurance Data From the German State of Rhineland-Palatinate.
  Grau AJ, Dienlin S, Bartig D, Maier W, Buggle F, Becher H. Dtsch Arztebl Int. 2021 Jun 11;118(23):397-402. doi: 10.3238/arztebl.m2021.0149.
• Genetic Variation and Cardiovascular Risk Factors: A Cohort Study on Migrants from the Former Soviet Union and a Native German Population.
  Huebner M, Börnigen D, Deckert A, Holle R, Meisinger C, Müller-Nurasyid M, Peters A, Rathmann W, Becher H. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 Jun 8;18(12):6215. doi: 10.3390/ijerph18126215.
• Comorbidity burden in long-term breast cancer survivors compared with a cohort of population-based controls from the MARIE study.
  Möhl A, Orban E, Jung AY, Behrens S, Obi N, Chang-Claude J, Becher H. Cancer. 2021 Apr 1;127(7):1154-1160. doi: 10.1002/cncr.33363. Epub 2020 Dec 1.
• Methods to estimate proportion and number of nonexposed cases in a population.
  Becher H, Aigner A. Biom J. 2021 Mar;63(3):514-527. doi: 10.1002/bimj.201900190. Epub 2020 Nov 5. PMID: 33150987
• Effects of Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Related Contact Restrictions in Germany, March to May 2020, on the Mobility and Relation to Infection Patterns.
  Bönisch S, Wegscheider K, Krause L, Sehner S, Wiegel S, Zapf A, Moser S, Becher H. Front Public Health. 2020 Oct 8;8:568287. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2020.568287. eCollection 2020.
• Postdiagnosis weight change is associated with poorer survival in breast cancer survivors: A prospective population-based patient cohort study.
  Jung AY, Hüsing A, Behrens S, Krzykalla J, Obi N, Becher H, Chang-Claude J. Int J Cancer. 2021 Jan 1;148(1):18-27. doi: 10.1002/ijc.33181. Epub 2020 Jul 10.
• [Persons with migration background in the German National Cohort (NAKO)-sociodemographic characteristics and comparisons with the German autochthonous population].
  Wiessner C, Keil T, Krist L, Zeeb H, Dragano N, Schmidt B, Ahrens W, Berger K, Castell S, Fricke J, Führer A, Gastell S, Greiser H, Guo F, Jaeschke L, Jochem C, Jöckel KH, Kaaks R, Koch-Gallenkamp L, Krause G, Kuss O, Legath N, Leitzmann M, Lieb W, Meinke-Franze C, Meisinger C, Mikolajczyk R, Obi N, Pischon T, Schipf S, Schmoor C, Schramm S, Schulze MB, Sowarka N, Waniek S, Wigmann C, Willich SN, Becher H. Bundesgesundheitsblatt Gesundheitsforschung Gesundheitsschutz. 2020 Mar;63(3):279-289. doi: 10.1007/s00103-020-03097-9

Pubmed profile

ORCID ID: orcid.org/0000-0002- 8808-6667