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

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 Toxoplasma-infected and 40 Toxoplasma-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 Toxoplasma-infected subjects are
real. Due to its high (30%) prevalence, toxoplasmosis could represent an
important factor for public health.