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Psychological distress and infectious disease mortality in the general population

Hamer, M; Kivimaki, M; Stamatakis, E; Batty, GD; (2019) Psychological distress and infectious disease mortality in the general population. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity , 76 pp. 280-283. 10.1016/j.bbi.2018.12.011. Green open access

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Abstract

There is a paucity of studies examining the relation between high psychological distress and infectious disease in the general population. We examined this association in a large multi-cohort study drawn from the general population. The analytic sample comprised 104,923 men and women (age, 47.3 ± 17.4 year; 45.7% men) in which psychological distress symptoms was assessed using the 12-item version of the General Health Questionnaire. There were 1535 deaths attributed to infectious diseases during 971,220 person-years of follow up (mean 9.3; range 0.1–17.1 years). A dose-response association between GHQ-12 score and all infectious disease mortality was observed after adjusting for age, sex, survey year, occupational social class, longstanding illness, smoking, alcohol, and physical activity (per SD increase, hazard ratio = 1.24; 95% CI, 1.20–1.28). A similar pattern was apparent for viral infections (1.23; 1.14, 1.33) and pneumonia (1.20; 1.13, 1.28), but weaker for bacterial infections (1.09; 1.00, 1.19). In conclusion, psychological distress is associated with higher risk of infectious disease.

Type: Article
Title: Psychological distress and infectious disease mortality in the general population
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1016/j.bbi.2018.12.011
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbi.2018.12.011
Language: English
Additional information: This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions.
Keywords: Depression, Bacterial infections, Virus diseases, Mortality
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Medical Sciences > Div of Surgery and Interventional Sci
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Epidemiology and Health
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Epidemiology and Health > Epidemiology and Public Health
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10070309
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