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The Role of Age and Gender in Perceived Vulnerability to Infectious Diseases

Background: The study of the immune system has been approached using two separate paths, the biological immune system and the behavioral immune system. Recently, Gangestad and Grebe proposed a unique integrated compensatory immune system, where both systems work together and one of them could compen...

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Autores principales: Díaz, Amelia, Beleña, Ángela, Zueco, Jesús
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7014162/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31940870
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17020485
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author Díaz, Amelia
Beleña, Ángela
Zueco, Jesús
author_facet Díaz, Amelia
Beleña, Ángela
Zueco, Jesús
author_sort Díaz, Amelia
collection PubMed
description Background: The study of the immune system has been approached using two separate paths, the biological immune system and the behavioral immune system. Recently, Gangestad and Grebe proposed a unique integrated compensatory immune system, where both systems work together and one of them could compensate for the other when necessary. However, few studies have confirmed the existence of this integrated compensatory immune system. Our study represents an attempt to explore the existence of this unique immune system, investigating if the behavioral immune system variables increase when the biological immune system weakens with age. Material and Methods. The cross-sectional design study was made up of a final sample of 1108 participants (45.2% men and 54.2 women) aged 18–64 years. The younger group (18–21 years) was made up of students, whilst the older groups (22 to 64 years) were composed by their relatives and acquaintances, following the snow ball process. The participants completed the Perceived Vulnerability to Disease Questionnaire that assesses perceived infectability and germ aversion. Correlations, analyses of variance (ANOVAs), and independent group comparisons were performed. These analyses showed the relationships between the variables studied, the effects of age and gender in perceived infectability and germ aversion, and the differences that perceived infectability and germ aversion presented in different age-groups separated by gender. Results: A pattern emerged where germ aversion increases as both men and women get older, but perceived infectability decreases up to the age of 50, and then it increases in women from that age onward. Gender differences are only significant in younger participants, with women having higher scores than men in both variables. Conclusion: The results partially support the existence of a unique integrated compensatory biological/behavioral immune system.
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spelling pubmed-70141622020-03-09 The Role of Age and Gender in Perceived Vulnerability to Infectious Diseases Díaz, Amelia Beleña, Ángela Zueco, Jesús Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Background: The study of the immune system has been approached using two separate paths, the biological immune system and the behavioral immune system. Recently, Gangestad and Grebe proposed a unique integrated compensatory immune system, where both systems work together and one of them could compensate for the other when necessary. However, few studies have confirmed the existence of this integrated compensatory immune system. Our study represents an attempt to explore the existence of this unique immune system, investigating if the behavioral immune system variables increase when the biological immune system weakens with age. Material and Methods. The cross-sectional design study was made up of a final sample of 1108 participants (45.2% men and 54.2 women) aged 18–64 years. The younger group (18–21 years) was made up of students, whilst the older groups (22 to 64 years) were composed by their relatives and acquaintances, following the snow ball process. The participants completed the Perceived Vulnerability to Disease Questionnaire that assesses perceived infectability and germ aversion. Correlations, analyses of variance (ANOVAs), and independent group comparisons were performed. These analyses showed the relationships between the variables studied, the effects of age and gender in perceived infectability and germ aversion, and the differences that perceived infectability and germ aversion presented in different age-groups separated by gender. Results: A pattern emerged where germ aversion increases as both men and women get older, but perceived infectability decreases up to the age of 50, and then it increases in women from that age onward. Gender differences are only significant in younger participants, with women having higher scores than men in both variables. Conclusion: The results partially support the existence of a unique integrated compensatory biological/behavioral immune system. MDPI 2020-01-11 2020-01 /pmc/articles/PMC7014162/ /pubmed/31940870 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17020485 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Díaz, Amelia
Beleña, Ángela
Zueco, Jesús
The Role of Age and Gender in Perceived Vulnerability to Infectious Diseases
title The Role of Age and Gender in Perceived Vulnerability to Infectious Diseases
title_full The Role of Age and Gender in Perceived Vulnerability to Infectious Diseases
title_fullStr The Role of Age and Gender in Perceived Vulnerability to Infectious Diseases
title_full_unstemmed The Role of Age and Gender in Perceived Vulnerability to Infectious Diseases
title_short The Role of Age and Gender in Perceived Vulnerability to Infectious Diseases
title_sort role of age and gender in perceived vulnerability to infectious diseases
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7014162/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31940870
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17020485
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