@article{discovery10070309, pages = {280--283}, journal = {Brain, Behavior, and Immunity}, month = {February}, publisher = {ACADEMIC PRESS INC ELSEVIER SCIENCE}, note = {This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher's terms and conditions.}, title = {Psychological distress and infectious disease mortality in the general population}, volume = {76}, year = {2019}, 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 {$\pm$} 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.}, author = {Hamer, M and Kivimaki, M and Stamatakis, E and Batty, GD}, url = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbi.2018.12.011}, issn = {1090-2139}, keywords = {Depression, Bacterial infections, Virus diseases, Mortality} }