IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/intell/v68y2018icp30-36.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Does general intelligence moderate the association between inflammation and psychological distress?

Author

Listed:
  • Midouhas, Emily
  • Flouri, Eirini
  • Papachristou, Efstathios
  • Kokosi, Theodora

Abstract

Research has shown that inflammation is implicated in the pathogenesis of mental health disorders, but not all individuals with such disorders have raised inflammatory markers. This study examined whether general intelligence may be a protective factor for 9666 adults aged 18–97 with elevated inflammation, measured with C-reactive protein (CRP), using data from the UK's Understanding Society. In multigroup analyses for males and females, multiple linear regression was used to model psychological distress dependent upon CRP, adjusting for a host of possible confounders including alcohol consumption, smoking status, history of cardiovascular disease or diabetes, physical exercise and obesity. Moderation by intelligence was tested with a multiplicative interaction term. Results showed that, in adjusted models, CRP was related to an increase in psychological distress in males (β = .049) but not females. Furthermore, intelligence moderated the effect of CRP on psychological distress in males (β = −.037), such that males with higher CRP levels were at lower risk with increased intelligence. In conclusion, general intelligence may protect male adults from the negative effects of inflammation on psychological distress.

Suggested Citation

  • Midouhas, Emily & Flouri, Eirini & Papachristou, Efstathios & Kokosi, Theodora, 2018. "Does general intelligence moderate the association between inflammation and psychological distress?," Intelligence, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 30-36.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:intell:v:68:y:2018:i:c:p:30-36
    DOI: 10.1016/j.intell.2018.03.002
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160289617300880
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.intell.2018.03.002?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Van de Velde, Sarah & Bracke, Piet & Levecque, Katia, 2010. "Gender differences in depression in 23 European countries. Cross-national variation in the gender gap in depression," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 71(2), pages 305-313, July.
    2. Ken B Hanscombe & Maciej Trzaskowski & Claire M A Haworth & Oliver S P Davis & Philip S Dale & Robert Plomin, 2012. "Socioeconomic Status (SES) and Children's Intelligence (IQ): In a UK-Representative Sample SES Moderates the Environmental, Not Genetic, Effect on IQ," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(2), pages 1-16, February.
    3. McFall, Stephanie L. & Conolly, Anne & Burton, Jonathan, 2012. "Collecting biomarkers using trained interviewers. Lessons learned from a pilot study," Understanding Society Working Paper Series 2012-05, Understanding Society at the Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Gignac, Gilles E. & Zajenkowski, Marcin, 2021. "The frustrated narcissist: Intelligence may reduce the chances of developing narcissistic rivalry," Intelligence, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Colombo, Emilio & Rotondi, Valentina & Stanca, Luca, 2018. "Macroeconomic conditions and health: Inspecting the transmission mechanism," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 29-37.
    2. Linda Juel Ahrenfeldt & Sören Möller & Mikael Thinggaard & Kaare Christensen & Rune Lindahl-Jacobsen, 2019. "Sex Differences in Comorbidity and Frailty in Europe," International Journal of Public Health, Springer;Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), vol. 64(7), pages 1025-1036, September.
    3. Ahammer, Alexander & Glogowsky, Ulrich & Halla, Martin & Hener, Timo, 2023. "The Parenthood Penalty in Mental Health: Evidence from Austria and Denmark," IZA Discussion Papers 16459, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Hideko Matsuo & Koen Matthijs, 2021. "The life course and subjective well-being across generations – an analysis based on cross-national surveys (2002–2016)," Vienna Yearbook of Population Research, Vienna Institute of Demography (VID) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna, vol. 19(1), pages 417-466.
    5. Georgios Marios Chrysanthou, 2021. "A Multiple Cohort Study of the Gender Gradient of Life Satisfaction during Adolescence: Longitudinal Evidence from Great Britain," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 83(6), pages 1341-1376, December.
    6. von Stumm, Sophie & Kandaswamy, Radhika & Maxwell, Jessye, 2023. "Gene-environment interplay in early life cognitive development," Intelligence, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    7. Octavio Nicolas Bramajo, 2022. "An Age-Period-Cohort Approach to Analyse Late-Life Depression Prevalence in Six European Countries, 2004–2016," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 38(2), pages 223-245, May.
    8. Bettina Siflinger & Michaela Paffenholz & Sebastian Seitz & Moritz Mendel & Hans-Martin von Gaudecker, 2021. "The COVID-19 Pandemic and Mental Health: Disentangling Crucial Channels," CRC TR 224 Discussion Paper Series crctr224_2021_271, University of Bonn and University of Mannheim, Germany.
    9. Kronenberg, C. & Jacobs, R. & Zucchelli, E., 2015. "The impact of a wage increase on mental health: Evidence from the UK minimum wage," Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers 15/08, HEDG, c/o Department of Economics, University of York.
    10. Gottschling, J. & Hahn, E. & Beam, C.R. & Spinath, F.M. & Carroll, S. & Turkheimer, E., 2019. "Socioeconomic status amplifies genetic effects in middle childhood in a large German twin sample," Intelligence, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 20-27.
    11. Fleming, Paul J. & Gruskin, Sofia & Rojo, Florencia & Dworkin, Shari L., 2015. "Men's violence against women and men are inter-related: Recommendations for simultaneous intervention," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 249-256.
    12. Luca Ronfani & Liza Vecchi Brumatti & Marika Mariuz & Veronica Tognin & Maura Bin & Valentina Ferluga & Alessandra Knowles & Marcella Montico & Fabio Barbone, 2015. "The Complex Interaction between Home Environment, Socioeconomic Status, Maternal IQ and Early Child Neurocognitive Development: A Multivariate Analysis of Data Collected in a Newborn Cohort Study," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(5), pages 1-13, May.
    13. Bettina Casad & Amy Marcus-Newhall & Brandon Nakawaki & Alian Kasabian & Judith LeMaster, 2012. "Younger Age at First Childbirth Predicts Mothers’ Lower Economic and Psychological Well-Being Later in Life," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 33(4), pages 421-435, December.
    14. Angelini, Viola & Mierau, Jochen O. & Viluma, Laura, 2021. "Socioeconomic Conditions in Childhood and Mental Health Later in Life," GLO Discussion Paper Series 844, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    15. Sekine, Michikazu & Tatsuse, Takashi & Kagamimori, Sadanobu & Chandola, Tarani & Cable, Noriko & Marmot, Michael & Martikainen, Pekka & Lallukka, Tea & Rahkonen, Ossi & Lahelma, Eero, 2011. "Sex inequalities in physical and mental functioning of British, Finnish, and Japanese civil servants: Role of job demand, control and work hours," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 73(4), pages 595-603, August.
    16. Montorsi, Carlotta & Fusco, Alessio & Van Kerm, Philippe & Bordas, Stéphane P.A., 2024. "Predicting depression in old age: Combining life course data with machine learning," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    17. Paulus, Lena & Spinath, Frank M. & Hahn, Elisabeth, 2021. "How do educational inequalities develop? The role of socioeconomic status, cognitive ability, home environment, and self-efficacy along the educational path," Intelligence, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    18. Giannelis, Alexandros & Willoughby, Emily A. & Corley, Robin & Hopfer, Christian & Hewitt, John K. & Iacono, William G. & Anderson, Jacob & Rustichini, Aldo & Vrieze, Scott I. & McGue, Matt & Lee, Jam, 2023. "The association between saving disposition and financial distress: A genetically informed approach," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 96(C).
    19. Xiaocui Ren & Chen Lu, 2021. "Effect of Children’s Support on Depression among Older Adults Living Alone or with a Spouse: A Comparative Analysis between Urban and Rural Areas of China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-15, June.
    20. Costa-Font, Joan & Vilaplana-Prieto, Cristina, 2022. "Mental health effects of caregivers respite: Subsidies or Supports?," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 23(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:intell:v:68:y:2018:i:c:p:30-36. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/intelligence .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.