A preliminary study on the role of personal history of infectious and parasitic diseases on self-reported health across countries

Pfuhl G 1 , Prazeres F 2 , Kowal M 3 , Aavik T 4 , Abad-Villaverde B 5 , Afhami R 6 Show all authors , Aguilar L 7 , Akello G 8 , Al-Shawaf L 9 , Antfolk J 10 , Atama CS 11 , Duyar DA 12 , Baiocco R 13 , Balım S 14 , Batres C 15 , Belkacem Y 16 , Besson T 17 , Bode A 18 , Boğa M 19 , Boudesseul J 20 , Boussena M 21 , Brahim H 22 , Burduli N 23 , Can AR 24 , Cetinkaya H 25 , Chirumbolo A 26 , Chubinidze D 27 , Cornec C 28 , Dinić BM 29 , Dural S 30 , Duyar I 12 , Ebimgbo SO 31 , Etchezahar E 32 , Fedor P 33 , Frackowiak T 34 , Frederick DA 35 , Galasinska K 36 , García FE 37 , Yepes TG 32 , Grigoryev D 38 , Guemaz F 39 , Hromatko I 40 , Ikizer G 41 , Janssen SMJ 42 , Kamburidis JA 43 , Kavčič T 44 , Kervyn N 45 , Khan F 46 , Kobylarek A 47 , Koyuncu M 48 , Kunisato Y 49 , Lacko D 50 , Landa-Blanco M 51 , Lidborg LH 52 , Lins S 53 , Mandzyk T 54 , Mari S 55 , Marot TA 56 , Martinez-Banfi M 57 , Mattiassi ADA 58 , Mayorga-Lascano M 59 , Mebarak M 60 , Meskó N 61 , Miccoli MR 62 , Mikuličiūtė V 63 , Milfont TL 64 , Mišetić K 65 , Morelli M 66 , Natividade JC 67 , Ndukaihe ILG 68 , Novaes F 69 , Omar SS 70 , Fauzee MSO 71 , Otterbring T 72 , Özener B 12 , Ozer S 73 , Park JH 74 , Banai IP 75 , Pazhoohi F 76 , Perun M 54 , Pírko M 77 , Pirtskhalava E 78 , Pisanski K 79 , Plohl N 80 , Ponnet K 81 , Prokop P 82 , Ribeiro MFF 83 , Rosário F 84 , Şahin A 12 , Sahli FZ 85 , Šakan D 86 , Senyk O 87 , Siepelmeyer H 72 , Ribeiro da Silva D 88 , Singh S 89 , Solak Ç 90 , Söylemez S 90 , Studzinska A 91 , Tan CS 92 , Topanova GT 93 , Bulut MT 94 , Toplu-Demirtaş E 95 , Trémolière B 96 , Tulyakul S 97 , Ungaretti J 98 , Valentova JV 99 , Varella MAC 99 , Vintila M 100 , Volkodav T 101 , Wlodarczyk A 102 , Yeh YY 103 , Yoo G 104 , Zerhouni O 105 , Zumárraga-Espinosa M 106 , Zupančič M 107 , Sorokowski P 34

Affiliations 

  • 1 Department of Psychology, NTNU, Norway. Electronic address: gerit.pfuhl@ntnu.no
  • 2 Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Beira Interior, Portugal; Family Health Unit Beira Ria, Portugal; RISE-Health, MEDCIDS, Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto, Portugal
  • 3 IDN Being Human Lab, Institute of Psychology, University of Wrocław, Poland
  • 4 Institute of Psychology, University of Tartu, Estonia
  • 5 Faculty of Education and Humanities, Universidad Nacional Pedro Henríquez Ureña, Dominican Republic
  • 6 Department of Art Studies, Tarbiat Modares University, Iran
  • 7 School of Psychology, Central University of Venezuela, Venezuela
  • 8 Faculty of Medicine, Department of Mental Health, Gulu University, Uganda
  • 9 Department of Psychology, University of Colorado, United States; Center for Cognitive Archeology, University of Colorado, United States; Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse, France
  • 10 Faculty of Arts, Psychology, and Theology, Åbo Akademi University, Finland
  • 11 Department of Sociology & Anthropology, University of Nigeria, Nigeria
  • 12 Department of Anthropology, İstanbul University, Turkey
  • 13 Department of Developmental and Social Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy
  • 14 Department of Psychology, Bursa Technical University, Turkey
  • 15 Department of Psychology, Franklin and Marshall College, United States
  • 16 Ecole Normale Supérieure, Assia DJEBBAR de Constantine Algérie, Algeria
  • 17 Laboratoire de Psychologie Sociale, Université Paris Cité, France
  • 18 School of Archaeology and Anthropology, ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences, Australian National University, Australia
  • 19 Department of Psychology, Bursu Uludag University, Turkey
  • 20 Laboratoire Parisien de Psychologie Sociale, Psychologie Sociale des Comportements et des Cognitions, Univ. Paris Nanterre, France; Instituto de Investigación Científica, Universidad de Lima, Peru
  • 21 Department of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Mohamed Lamine Debaghine, Setif2, Algeria
  • 22 Département of Sociologie, Ibn Tofaïl University, Morocco
  • 23 Department of Psychology, University of Georgia, Georgia
  • 24 Department of Anthropology, Hatay Mustafa Kemal University, Turkey
  • 25 Department of Psychology, Yaşar University, Turkey
  • 26 Department of Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy
  • 27 Psychological Medicine, King's College London, United Kingdom
  • 28 ENES Bioacoustics Research Lab, Jean Monnet University of Saint Etienne, France
  • 29 Department of Psychology, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Novi Sad, Serbia
  • 30 Department of Psychology, İzmir University of Economics, Turkey
  • 31 Department of Social Work, University of Nigeria, Nigeria; Faculty of Catholic Theology, Julius-Maximilians University, Germany
  • 32 Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, Autonomous University of Madrid, Spain
  • 33 Department of Environmental Ecology, Comenius University, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Slovakia
  • 34 Institute of Psychology, University of Wrocław, Poland
  • 35 Crean College of Health and Behavioral Sciences, Chapman University, United States
  • 36 Department of Psychology, SWPS University, Poland
  • 37 Departamento de Psiquiatría y Salud Mental, Universidad de Concepción, Chile
  • 38 Center for Sociocultural Research, HSE University, Russia
  • 39 Department of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Setif2, Algeria
  • 40 Department of Psychology, University of Zagreb, Croatia
  • 41 Department of Psychology, TOBB University of Economics and Technology, Turkey
  • 42 School of Psychology, University of Nottingham Malaysia, Malaysia
  • 43 Department of Social, Organizational, Clinical and Pedagogical Psychology, Sofia University "St.Kliment Ohridsky", Bulgaria
  • 44 Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia; Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
  • 45 Louvain School of Management, Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium
  • 46 Department of Education, Women University Mardan KP, Pakistan
  • 47 Institute of Pedagogy, University of Wrocław, Poland
  • 48 Department of Psychology, Izmir Bakırcay University, Turkey
  • 49 Department of Psychology, Senshu University, Japan
  • 50 Interdisciplinary Research Team on Internet and Society, Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic
  • 51 School of Psychological Sciences, National Autonomous University of Honduras, Honduras
  • 52 Department of Psychology, Durham University, Durham, United Kingdom
  • 53 Department of Psychology, University of Porto, Portugal
  • 54 Department of Psychology, Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, Ukraine
  • 55 Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy
  • 56 Department of Administration, Fundação Getulio Vargas, Brazil
  • 57 Facultad de Ciencias Jurídicas y Sociales, Centro de Investigaciones en Ciencias de la Vida-CICV, Universidad Simón Bolivar, Colombia
  • 58 Department of Education, Literatures, Intercultural Studies, Languages and Psychology, University of Florence, Italy
  • 59 Escuela de Psicología, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador-Ambato, Ecuador
  • 60 Department of Psychology, Universidad del Norte, Colombia
  • 61 Institute of Psychology, Department of Cognitive and Evolutionary Psychology, University of Pécs, Hungary
  • 62 Department of Psychology, University of Konstanz, Germany
  • 63 Department of Psychology, Vilnius University, Lithuania
  • 64 School of Psychological and Social Sciences, University of Waikato, Tauranga, New Zealand
  • 65 Department of Psychology, University of Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
  • 66 Department of Dynamic and Clinical Psychology, and Health Studies, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy
  • 67 Graduate Program of Psychology, Pontifical Catholic University of Campinas, Brazil
  • 68 Department of Psychology, Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Nigeria
  • 69 Department of Psychology, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
  • 70 Department of Dermatology, Venereology & Andrology, Alexandria University, Egypt
  • 71 Sport Academy UPM, Faculty of Education and Liberal Arts, INTI International University, Malaysia
  • 72 Department of Management and Innovation, University of Agder, Norway
  • 73 Department of Psychology and Behavioural Sciences, Aarhus University, Denmark
  • 74 Department of Child and Family Studies, Yonsei University, Republic of Korea
  • 75 Department of Psychology, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, J. J. Strossmayer University of Osijek, Croatia
  • 76 School of Psychology, University of Plymouth, United Kingdom
  • 77 Institute of Lifelong Learning, Mendel University in Brno, Czech Republic
  • 78 Department of Psychology, Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, Georgia
  • 79 ENES Bioacoustics Research Lab, Jean Monnet University of Saint Etienne, France; Institute of Psychology, University of Wrocław, Poland; French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), Language Dynamics Laboratory, University of Lyon, France
  • 80 Department of Psychology, University of Maribor, Slovenia
  • 81 Faculty of Social Sciences, imec-mict-Ghent University, Belgium
  • 82 Department of Environmental Ecology and Landscape Management, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Comenius University, Slovakia; Department of Animal Ecology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Slovakia
  • 83 Department of Psychology, University of Uberaba, Brazil
  • 84 USF Tondela, ACES Dão Lafões, Viseu, Portugal
  • 85 IMS, Ibn Tofaïl University, Morocco
  • 86 Department of Psychology, Faculty of Legal and Business Studies Dr Lazar Vrkatić, Union University, Serbia
  • 87 Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, WSB Merito University in Gdansk, Poland; Department of Psychology and Psychotherapy, Ukrainian Catholic University, Ukraine
  • 88 Center for Research in Neuropsychology and Cognitive Behavioral Intervention (CINEICC), Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences, University of Coimbra, Portugal
  • 89 Department of Strategy and Leadership, University of Agder, Norway
  • 90 Department of Psychology, Manisa Celal Bayar University, Turkey
  • 91 Humanities Department, Icam School of Engineering, Toulouse Campus, France
  • 92 School of Psychology, Wenzhou-Kean University, China
  • 93 Department of Theoretical and Practical Psychology, Kazakh National Women's Pedagogical University, Kazakhstan
  • 94 Clinical Addiction Research Unit, Lund University, Sweden
  • 95 Department of Psychological Counseling and Guidance, MEF University, Turkey
  • 96 Department of Psychology, University of Toulouse Jean Jaurès, France; Department of Psychology, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, Canada
  • 97 Department of Health and Physical Education, Thaksin University, Thailand
  • 98 Faculty of Education, Universidad Internacional de Valencia, Spain
  • 99 Department of Experimental Psychology, Institute of Psychology, University of Sao Paulo, Brazil
  • 100 Department of Psychology, West University of Timisoara, Romania
  • 101 Department of Pedagogy and Psychology, Kuban State University, Russia
  • 102 Escuela de Psicología, Universidad Católica del Norte, Chile
  • 103 Department of International Studies & Modern Languages, University of St. Thomas, Houston, United States
  • 104 Department of Child and Family Studies, Kyung Hee University, Republic of Korea
  • 105 Centre de Recherche sur les Fonctionnements et Dysfonctionnements Psychologiques, University of Rouen Normandy, France; Laboratoire Parisien de Psychologie Sociale, Université Paris Nanterre, France
  • 106 Universidad Politécnica Salesiana, Ecuador
  • 107 Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
Public Health, 2025 Mar 23;242:220-227.
PMID: 40127606 DOI: 10.1016/j.puhe.2025.02.030

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: Infectious diseases are often associated with decline in quality of life. The aim of this study is to analyze the relationship between personal history of communicable, i.e., infectious and parasitic diseases and self-rated health.

STUDY DESIGN: Secondary analysis of a large dataset multi-country observational study.

METHODS: We used a four-pronged analysis approach to investigate whether personal history of infectious and parasitic diseases is related to self-reported health, measured with a single item.

RESULTS: Three of the four analyses found a small positive effect on self-reported health among those reporting a history of pathogen exposure. The meta-analysis found no support but large heterogeneity that was not reduced by two classifications of countries.

CONCLUSION: Personal history of infectious and parasitic diseases does not reduce self-reported health across a global sample.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

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