University of Michigan study: Less educated people may be more susceptible to swine flu
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A University of Michigan study found education, or lack thereof, may play a role in how well a person's immune system is able to fight the swine flu.
The increased stress people with less education and less income may experience can weaken their immune system and make it easier for them to catch the flu virus and other infections, researchers from U-M School of Public Health said.
A swine flu vaccination shot is administered at a recent clinic in Washtenaw County.
Melanie Maxwell | AnnArbor.com
It may also make the flu virus vaccine less effective, U-M said in its release.
"What is going on with the dramatic (downturn) in the economy could actually translate into people's susceptibility to these diseases," study co-author Jennifer Dowd said in a release. Dowd is a professor at Hunter College in New York who began the work while in the Health and Society Scholars program at the U-M School of Public Health.
She co-authored the study with Allison Aiello, an assistant professor of epidemiology at U-M's Public Health School.
The researchers looked at a virus commonly found in humans that's usually controlled in the body, but can cause infection when the immune system is weakened. Other studies have found elderly people with less education have a weakened immune control of the virus, but this study shows the connection for younger people as well.
A person with less than a high school education had about the same amount of immune protection as a person with more than a high school education who was 15 to 20 years older in the study.
"When you listen to the current news about H1N1, it's interesting because everyone feels that this is a random threat, that we all have an equal chance of getting it," Dowd said. "This study points out that certain groups are potentially more susceptible and it's not just people with existing chronic illness."
Tina Reed covers health and the environment for AnnArbor.com. You can reach her at tinareed@annarbor.com, call her at 734-623-2535 or find her on Twitter @TreedinAA.
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How about being left handed compared to right handed? I hate all studies like this! This is like finding which colors of cars crash the most...
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Posted Nov 10
Why am I not surprised that this study came out of AA! Maybe they should study why the football team is so awful...
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Posted Nov 10
Can we get a link to the original study? How about the actual title, or the journal that it appeared in? If it's just a preprint, how about letting us know? Or do we not actually consider this "science reporting"?
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Posted Nov 10
Here's a link to the U-M news release:
http://www.ns.umich.edu/htdocs/releases/story.php?id=7410
That links to the abstract of the journal article:
http://journals.lww.com/epidem/Abstract/2009/11000/Socioeconomic_Differentials_in_Immune_Response.22.aspx
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Posted Nov 10
Wow, they spent money on these studies? The quote above talks about stress "...increased stress people with less education and less income may experience can weaken their immune system ..."
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Maybe it is related to having no sick time then being exposed to those who come to HAVE to work sick?
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Or living in impossibly small apartments and homes with many others who may be sick?
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It sounds more like a economic situation than a level of education. I wonder they did twin studies, you know comparing twins that dropped out of HS with those that received PhDs?
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Posted Nov 10
Yes, they spend money on these studies. And they are important. The reporting of them here and by U of M doesn't seem to do them justice from what I can tell of the article abstract (thanks, John of Saline).
It's significant that among all people positive for CMV (another virus which makes it hard to fight off N1H1), low SES is associated with lower immune response. Age, income, and education each predict lower immune response (and theoretically, then, less ability to fight of H1N1). Of course, it's probably not the diploma hanging on the wall that gives you a better immune system, :) but the life experience that leads to and from that diploma.
Just another reason to finish college, I guess.
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Posted Nov 10
This seems to be a merging of political goals and real science. If Dowd were a scientist, she would report the correlations found between immunity reduction and stress level.
However, because Dowd has a personal axe to grind, she makes it about her own politics. That makes me question whether results were jiggered to fit her hypothesis.
This is happening all too often in science these days. Those whose findings don't fit the current political culture do not receive funding. You get what you pay for.
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Posted Nov 10
Another theory: People who are college educated have more immunity because of unsafe social behavior when they were in their late teens and early twenties. There is a health benefit to spring break and frat parties!
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Posted Nov 10
Way to go ottomobeal, I think you hit the nail on the head. More of an economic situation than a educational situational. People with higher education tend to do better financially but that does not guarentee less stress or better living conditions.
43 million people in the USA do not have health insurance, maybe that has something to do with their findings. We all know that people who live on the South side of the street are sick more often than their Northern neighbors. Or maybe educated people get more sunshine than un educated people or ...................
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Posted Nov 10
Maybe if we all had PhD's no one would ever get sick, amazing.
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Posted Nov 11
Tina, you might want to get an interview with a few pediatrician's offices. A friend of ours just took one of their kids in for pneumonia, and they relayed that the pediatrician is astounded at the number and severity of pneumonia cases they're dealing with right now.
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Posted Nov 11
spilled my coffee on myself laughing so hard thank you professors for educating me this makes me think about what my dad used to say about "some" professors LOL LOL will anyway quit leaving the bathroom with old washing your hands this definitely shows your lack of education and you don't have to show your degree to do it:)
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Posted Nov 11
with (out) washing your hands
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Posted Nov 11
WOW what a waste of money!
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Posted Nov 11