1. Sex and age differences in self-reported immune fitness
- Author
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Kiki EW. Mulder, Pauline A. Hendriksen, Guusje A. Ulijn, Emina Išerić, Johan Garssen, and Joris C. Verster
- Subjects
Sex ,Age ,Immune fitness ,Immune status ,Health perception ,Neurosciences. Biological psychiatry. Neuropsychiatry ,RC321-571 - Abstract
Studies have reported sex and age differences in self-rated health. On average, women rate their health as being poorer compared to men, and older individuals report poorer health than younger individuals. The current study evaluated sex and age differences for self-reported immune fitness, i.e. the capacity of the body to respond to health challenges (such as infections) by activating an appropriate immune response in order to promote health and prevent and resolve disease. Data from different survey studies (N = 8586) were combined for the current analyses. N = 8064 participants (93.3%) completed the single-item scale to assess momentary immune fitness (mean (Standard deviation, SD) age of 32.4 (16.7) years old, range: 18 to 103, 68.0% women) and N = 4263 participants (49.7%) completed the Immune Status Questionnaire (ISQ) to assess past year's immune fitness (mean (SD) age of 40.9 (17.1) years old, range: 18 to 103, 61.1% women). The analyses revealed that women rated their momentary and past year's immune fitness significantly lower than men (p
- Published
- 2024
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