Physical and mental health status in Toxoplasma-infected women before and three years after they learn about their infection: Manipulation or side-effects of impaired health?

Raw data related to the paper "Physical and mental health status in Toxoplasma-infected women before and three years after they learn about their infection: Manipulation or side-effects of impaired health?"Šebánková B., Flegr J.Front. Ecol. Evol. 5:144. doi: 10.3389/fevo.2017.00144<br><br>AbstractLatent toxoplasmosis is known to be associated with specific changes in animal and human behavior and human personality. Many toxoplasmosis-associated shifts, such as an extroversion-introversion shift or a trust -suspicion shift, go in opposite directions in men and women. The stress coping hypothesis suggests that such behavioral effects of toxoplasmosis are side effects of chronic stress caused by lifelong parasitosis and associated health disorders. Several studies have searched for, and typically found, indices of impaired health in infected subjects. However, subjects were always aware of their toxoplasmosis status, which could influence obtained data and cause false-positive results of the studies. Here we searched for differences in physical and mental health status among 39 <i>Toxoplasma</i>-infected and 40 <i>Toxoplasma</i>-free female university students who completed identical questionnaires (N-70, and anamnestic questionnaire), before and 3 years after they were informed of their toxoplasmosis status. Our results showed that infected women showed indices of poorer health status, not only after, but also before they were informed of their infection. In accordance with previously published data, these indices were more numerous and stronger in Rh-negative than in Rh-positive women. Present results suggest that observed indices of poorer health and symptoms of chronic stress in <i>Toxoplasma</i>-infected subjects are real. Due to its high (30%) prevalence, toxoplasmosis could represent an important factor for public health.<br>

本数据集关联论文《获知弓形虫（Toxoplasma）感染状态前后及感染后三年的女性身心状况：是健康受损的操控效应还是副作用？》，作者为Šebánková B.、Flegr J.，发表于《生态学与进化前沿》（Front. Ecol. Evol.）第5卷第144期，DOI: 10.3389/fevo.2017.00144。

摘要
已知潜伏性弓形虫病（Toxoplasmosis）与动物及人类的行为、人格特征改变存在明确关联。诸多与弓形虫感染相关的行为转变，如内外向维度偏移、信任-怀疑维度偏移，在男性与女性群体中呈现完全相反的方向。应激应对假说提出，弓形虫感染的此类行为效应，实为终身寄生虫感染及伴随健康紊乱所引发的慢性应激的副作用。多项研究已搜寻并普遍证实了感染个体存在健康受损的相关指标，但过往研究的受试者始终知晓自身的弓形虫感染状态，这一因素可能干扰所得数据，导致研究出现假阳性结果。
本研究针对79名女性大学生展开追踪，其中39名为弓形虫感染阳性者，40名为弓形虫感染阴性者，所有受试者均在获知自身感染状态前，以及获知感染状态后三年，完成了同一份包含70个问题与病史问卷的调查问卷。结果显示，感染弓形虫的女性不仅在获知感染状态后，甚至在获知感染状态前就已表现出健康状况较差的相关指标。与既往发表的数据一致，此类健康受损指标在Rh阴性（Rh-negative）女性群体中数量更多、程度更强。本研究结果表明，此前在弓形虫感染个体中观察到的健康状况较差表现及慢性应激症状确属真实存在。鉴于弓形虫感染的流行率高达30%，其或可成为公共卫生领域的一项重要影响因素。