Beatrice Boucher

Google Scholar

Research Synopsis

Beatrice Boucher’s research examines diet and disease associations in population-based studies. She has expertise in dietary assessment methods - particularly food frequency questionnaires (FFQs) and food compositional databases - as well as in phytoestrogens and breast cancer risk and prevention.

Beatrice led the development of FFQs to improve estimates of intake and disease risk in multiple studies including through collaborations with key developers: Block, Harvard/Willett, and the US National Cancer Institute DHQ. She co-developed the Canadian Diet History Questionnaire-II (C-DHQ-II), which used national intake data to identify and evaluate its food list and analytic components – an important advance in Canadian FFQ development (Publ Health Nutr, 19:3247-3255, 2016). 

Beatrice has assessed validity and reliability of FFQs to support their use and evaluation, and published the most recent validation of the widely used Block FFQ (Publ Health Nutr, 9:84-93, 2006) among others. Her work includes examinations of dietary patterns such as DASH, plant-based Portfolio, and a posteriori.

Beatrice has also contributed substantially to the development of compositional databases and analytic elements needed to derive intake from FFQs and other dietary methods. A phytoestrogen database providing unique content data for Canadian foods (Nutr Cancer, 54:184-201, 2006) has been used extensively to build global databases and assess diet and disease associations.

Modified dietary methods that enhanced examinations of diet and disease risk have led to particularly substantial contributions relating to phytoestrogens and breast cancer risk, including incidence across the life course and survival (e.g., Cancer Causes Control, 17:1253-1261, 2008; Cancer Causes Control, 27:459-472, 2016).

Recent Publications

1. Yashpal S, Liese AD, Boucher BA, Wagenknecht LE, Haffner SM, Johnston LW, Bazinet RP, Rewers M, Rotter JI, Watkins SM, Hanley AJ. Metabolomic profiling of the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension diet provides novel insights for the nutritional epidemiology of type 2 diabetes mellitus. Br J Nutr. 2021 Sep 13:1-11. doi: 10.1017/S0007114521003561. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 34511138.
2. Glenn AJ, Boucher BA, Kavcic CC, Khan TA, Paquette M, Kendall CWC, Hanley AJ, Jenkins DJA, Sievenpiper JL. Development of a Portfolio Diet Score and Its Concurrent and Predictive Validity Assessed by a Food Frequency Questionnaire. Nutrients. 2021 Aug 19;13(8):2850. doi: 10.3390/nu13082850. PMID: 34445009; PMCID: PMC8398786.
3. Glenn AJ, Lo K, Jenkins DJA, Boucher BA, Hanley AJ, Kendall CWC, Manson JE, Vitolins MZ, Snetselaar LG, Liu S, Sievenpiper JL. Relationship Between a Plant-Based Dietary Portfolio and Risk of Cardiovascular Disease: Findings From the Women's Health Initiative Prospective Cohort Study. J Am Heart Assoc. 2021 Aug 17;10(16):e021515. doi: 10.1161/JAHA.121.021515. Epub 2021 Aug 4. PMID: 34346245; PMCID: PMC8475059.
4. Glenn AJ, Viguiliouk E, Seider M, Boucher BA, Khan TA, Blanco Mejia S, Jenkins DJA, Kahleová H, Rahelić D, Salas-Salvadó J, Kendall CWC, Sievenpiper JL. Relation of Vegetarian Dietary Patterns With Major Cardiovascular Outcomes: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Prospective Cohort Studies. Front Nutr. 2019 Jun 13;6:80. doi: 10.3389/fnut.2019.00080. PMID: 31263700; PMCID: PMC6585466.
5. Boucher BA, Wanigaratne S, Harris SA, Cotterchio M. Postdiagnosis Isoflavone and Lignan Intake in Newly Diagnosed Breast Cancer Patients: Cross-Sectional Survey Shows Considerable Intake from Previously Unassessed High-Lignan Foods. Curr Dev Nutr. 2017 Dec 19;2(3):nzx009. doi: 10.3945/cdn.117.002063. PMID: 30377679; PMCID: PMC6201681.
6. Chang VC, Cotterchio M, Boucher BA, Jenkins DJA, Mirea L, McCann SE, Thompson LU. Effect of Dietary Flaxseed Intake on Circulating Sex Hormone Levels among Postmenopausal Women: A Randomized Controlled Intervention Trial. Nutr Cancer. 2019;71(3):385-398. doi: 10.1080/01635581.2018.1516789. Epub 2018 Oct 30. PMID: 30375890.
7. Boucher BA, Manafò E, Boddy MR, Roblin L, Truscott R. The Ontario Food and Nutrition Strategy: identifying indicators of food access and food literacy for early monitoring of the food environment. Health Promot Chronic Dis Prev Can. 2017 Sep;37(9):313-319. doi: 10.24095/hpcdp.37.9.06. PMID: 28902480; PMCID: PMC5650040.
8. Kirkpatrick SI, Vanderlee L, Raffoul A, Stapleton J, Csizmadi I, Boucher BA, Massarelli I, Rondeau I, Robson PJ. Self-Report Dietary Assessment Tools Used in Canadian Research: A Scoping Review. Adv Nutr. 2017 Mar 15;8(2):276-289. doi: 10.3945/an.116.014027. PMID: 28298272; PMCID: PMC5347105.
9. Jenkins DJA, Boucher BA, Ashbury FD, Sloan M, Brown P, El-Sohemy A, Hanley AJ, Willett W, Paquette M, de Souza RJ, Ireland C, Kwan N, Jenkins A, Pichika SC, Kreiger N. Effect of Current Dietary Recommendations on Weight Loss and Cardiovascular Risk Factors. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2017 Mar 7;69(9):1103-1112. doi: 10.1016/j.jacc.2016.10.089. PMID: 28254171.
10. Lo Siou G, Csizmadi I, Boucher BA, Akawung AK, Whelan HK, Sharma M, Al Rajabi A, Vena JE, Kirkpatrick SI, Koushik A, Massarelli I, Rondeau I, Robson PJ. The Comparative Reliability and Feasibility of the Past-Year Canadian Diet History Questionnaire II: Comparison of the Paper and Web Versions. Nutrients. 2017 Feb 13;9(2):133. doi: 10.3390/nu9020133. PMID: 28208819; PMCID: PMC5331564.