ArticlePloS one2015
The Association between Infections and General Cognitive Ability in Young Men - A Nationwide Study.
Article in PloS one, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 19 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
19 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Common Bacterial Infections and Risk of Dementia or Cognitive Decline: A Systematic Review.Journal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD · 2020Pooled it
- Severe infections, domain-specific cognitive vulnerability, and future infection risk in older adults.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2026Article
- Curcumin attenuates memory impairments and long-term potentiation deficits by damping hippocampal inflammatory cytokines in lipopolysaccharide-challenged rats.Metabolic brain disease · 2023Article
- Signalling cognition: the gut microbiota and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2023Review
- Essential childhood immunization in 43 low- and middle-income countries: Analysis of spatial trends and socioeconomic inequalities in vaccine coverage.PLoS medicine · 2023Article
- Childhood infections and autism spectrum disorders and/or intellectual disability: a register-based cohort study.Journal of neurodevelopmental disorders · 2022Article
- Adulthood systemic inflammation accelerates the trajectory of age-related cognitive decline.Aging · 2021Article
- Contribution of Pro-Inflammatory Molecules Induced by Respiratory Virus Infections to Neurological Disorders.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Review
- Neonatal vitamin D levels and cognitive ability in young adulthood.European journal of nutrition · 2020Article
- A large population-based investigation into the genetics of susceptibility to gastrointestinal infections and the link between gastrointestinal infections and mental illness.Human genetics · 2020Article
- Association between prenatal maternal infection and disordered eating behaviours in adolescence: a UK population-based prospective birth cohort study.Psychological medicine · 2020Article
- A large-scale genomic investigation of susceptibility to infection and its association with mental disorders in the Danish population.Translational psychiatry · 2019Article
- Lipopolysaccharide-induced neuroinflammation induces presynaptic disruption through a direct action on brain tissue involving microglia-derived interleukin 1 beta.Journal of neuroinflammation · 2019Article
- MicroRNAs and the Genetic Nexus of Brain Aging, Neuroinflammation, Neurodegeneration, and Brain Trauma.Aging and disease · 2019Review
- The "Centrality of Sepsis": A Review on Incidence, Mortality, and Cost of Care.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2018Review
- Association of Childhood Infection With IQ and Adult Nonaffective Psychosis in Swedish Men: A Population-Based Longitudinal Cohort and Co-relative Study.JAMA psychiatry · 2018Article
- Factors Associated With Short and Long Term Cognitive Changes in Patients With Sepsis.Scientific reports · 2018Article
- Association between childhood infection, serum inflammatory markers and intelligence: findings from a population-based prospective birth cohort study.Epidemiology and infection · 2018Article
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundInfections and activated immune responses can affect the brain through several pathways that might also affect cognition. However, no large-scale study has previously investigated the effect of infections on the general cognitive ability in the general population.
methodsDanish nationwide registers were linked to establish a cohort of all 161,696 male conscripts during the years 2006-2012 who were tested for cognitive ability, which was based on logical, verbal, numerical and spatial reasoning at a mean age of 19.4 years. Test scores were converted to a mean of 100.00 and with a standard deviation (SD) of 15. Data were analyzed as a cohort study with severe infections requiring hospitalization as exposure using linear regression.
resultsAdjusted effect sizes were calculated with non-exposure to severe infections as reference, ranging from 0.12 SD to 0.63 SD on general cognitive ability. A prior infection was associated with significantly lower cognitive ability by a mean of 1.76 (95%CI: -1.92 to -1.61; corresponding to 0.12 SD). The cognitive ability was affected the most by the temporal proximity of the last infection (P<0.001) and by the severity of infection measured by days of admission (P<0.001). The number of infections were associated with decreased cognitive ability in a dose-response relationship, and highest mean differences were found for ≥10 hospital contacts for infections (Mean: -5.54; 95%CI: -7.20 to -3.89; corresponding to 0.37 SD), and for ≥5 different types of infections (Mean: -9.44; 95%CI: -13.2 to -5.69; corresponding to 0.63 SD). Hospital contacts with infections had occurred in 35% of the individuals prior to conscription.
conclusionsIndependent of a wide range of possible confounders, significant associations between infections and cognitive ability were observed. Infections or related immune responses might directly affect the cognitive ability; however, associated heritable and environmental factors might also account for the lowered cognitive ability.
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