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Unique contributions of anxiety, stress and depression to immunity: A cross-cultural investigation

Breeze, Catherine ; Medvedev, Oleg N. ; Cervin, Matti LU ; Sutton, Anna ; Barcaccia, Barbara ; Couyoumdjian, Alessandro ; Pallini, Susanna ; Billot, Moana ; Chalmers, Rebecca and Iqbal, Naved , et al. (2024) In Journal of Affective Disorders Reports 15.
Abstract
While immunity and psychological distress are strongly associated, studies seldom consider how different types of distress relate to immune functioning. The literature tends to emphasis the impact of stress on immunity. The present cross-sectional study estimated the unique contributions of depression, anxiety, and stress on immune function in culturally diverse samples of adults from Italy, New Zealand and India. Participants were Italian (n = 1061), New Zealand (n = 1037), and Indian (n = 384) volunteers. Stepwise multiple linear regression and dominance analysis were used to analyse differences in immunity uniquely explained by anxiety, depression, and stress. While samples from the three countries differed significantly, anxiety... (More)
While immunity and psychological distress are strongly associated, studies seldom consider how different types of distress relate to immune functioning. The literature tends to emphasis the impact of stress on immunity. The present cross-sectional study estimated the unique contributions of depression, anxiety, and stress on immune function in culturally diverse samples of adults from Italy, New Zealand and India. Participants were Italian (n = 1061), New Zealand (n = 1037), and Indian (n = 384) volunteers. Stepwise multiple linear regression and dominance analysis were used to analyse differences in immunity uniquely explained by anxiety, depression, and stress. While samples from the three countries differed significantly, anxiety consistently explained the greatest proportion of differences in immunity. After accounting for the effect of anxiety, stress and depression explained only negligible variation in immune functioning. This association of anxiety with immune functioning was consistent across three different countries and this unique impact was further confirmed by the results of dominance analysis. These findings suggest a clear link between anxiety and immunity, which advances the prevailing stress-disease model and foster further experimental and longitudinal research into the impact of anxiety on immunity. (Less)
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organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Journal of Affective Disorders Reports
volume
15
article number
100699
publisher
Elsevier
external identifiers
  • scopus:85179651050
ISSN
2666-9153
DOI
10.1016/j.jadr.2023.100699
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
a4619776-cbce-44ef-9017-32585eccf57f
date added to LUP
2024-01-05 20:10:36
date last changed
2024-01-08 08:10:41
@article{a4619776-cbce-44ef-9017-32585eccf57f,
  abstract     = {{While immunity and psychological distress are strongly associated, studies seldom consider how different types of distress relate to immune functioning. The literature tends to emphasis the impact of stress on immunity. The present cross-sectional study estimated the unique contributions of depression, anxiety, and stress on immune function in culturally diverse samples of adults from Italy, New Zealand and India. Participants were Italian (n = 1061), New Zealand (n = 1037), and Indian (n = 384) volunteers. Stepwise multiple linear regression and dominance analysis were used to analyse differences in immunity uniquely explained by anxiety, depression, and stress. While samples from the three countries differed significantly, anxiety consistently explained the greatest proportion of differences in immunity. After accounting for the effect of anxiety, stress and depression explained only negligible variation in immune functioning. This association of anxiety with immune functioning was consistent across three different countries and this unique impact was further confirmed by the results of dominance analysis. These findings suggest a clear link between anxiety and immunity, which advances the prevailing stress-disease model and foster further experimental and longitudinal research into the impact of anxiety on immunity.}},
  author       = {{Breeze, Catherine and Medvedev, Oleg N. and Cervin, Matti and Sutton, Anna and Barcaccia, Barbara and Couyoumdjian, Alessandro and Pallini, Susanna and Billot, Moana and Chalmers, Rebecca and Iqbal, Naved and Reid, Vincent and Singh, Nirbhay}},
  issn         = {{2666-9153}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{01}},
  publisher    = {{Elsevier}},
  series       = {{Journal of Affective Disorders Reports}},
  title        = {{Unique contributions of anxiety, stress and depression to immunity: A cross-cultural investigation}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jadr.2023.100699}},
  doi          = {{10.1016/j.jadr.2023.100699}},
  volume       = {{15}},
  year         = {{2024}},
}