Psychosocial Risk Factors for Upper Respiratory Infection: Depression as a Mediator of Associations between Neuroticism and Upper Respiratory Illness
Abstract
Upper respiratory infections are commonplace among military personnel in training or operational environments. Although these infections typically produce mild, self-limiting disease, laboratory evidence indicates they can substantially impair cognitive and physical performance, and, therefore, contribute to a substantial number of walking wounded in operational settings. The development of methods of reducing the effects of infectious disease will progress more rapidly if high risk individuals can be identified for study to carefully delineate the processes of disease susceptibility as a precursor to development of interventions targeted on specific deficiencies. Prior research supports anecdotal observations that neurotic tendencies are related to higher incidence of illness under stress, presumably because adverse psychological reactions to stress activate physiological systems in ways that impair immune function.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 31, 1989
- Accession Number
- ADA223192
Entities
People
- Linda K. Hervig
- Ross R. Vickers
Organizations
- Naval Health Research Center