Dipartimento di Scienze Statistiche, Sapienza Università di Roma, Rome, Italy.
Aging Research Center, Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Karolinska Institutet and Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden.
J Epidemiol Community Health. 2018 Jun;72(6):526-531. doi: 10.1136/jech-2017-210114. Epub 2018 Feb 19.
Recent findings suggest that bereavement due to spousal loss is associated with a decline in general immune functions, and thus to increased susceptibility to infections among widowed individuals. The present study aims to investigate whether spousal loss weakens immune defences more among men than among women using a 5% random sample of the total Danish population, and anti-infective medication use as a proxy for immune response.
We followed 6076 Danish individuals (67% women) aged ≥50 from 5 years before and up to 5 years after widowhood to examine changes in prescriptions of anti-infectives for systemic use.
Women used more anti-infective drugs both before and after spousal loss (women: OR= 1.31; 95% CI 1.21 to 1.42). The age-related changes in the use of anti-infective medications in the period before widowhood were similar to that in the period after widowhood among both men and women. Also, age-related changes in the use of anti-infective medications were similar in both genders.
The present study shows that individuals are more likely to use anti-infective medication after being widowed than before being widowed, but this change is likely to be related to increasing age and it is similar in both genders.
最近的研究结果表明，丧偶导致的丧亲之痛与一般免疫功能下降有关，因此丧偶者更容易感染。本研究旨在使用丹麦总人口的 5%随机样本，并以抗感染药物的使用作为免疫反应的替代指标，来调查丧偶是否会使男性的免疫防御能力比女性更弱。
我们对 6076 名年龄≥50 岁的丹麦个体（67%为女性）进行了随访，随访时间从丧偶前 5 年到丧偶后 5 年，以观察系统使用抗感染药物的处方变化。
女性在丧偶前后使用的抗感染药物都更多（女性：OR=1.31；95%CI 1.21 至 1.42）。男性和女性在丧偶前和丧偶后，抗感染药物使用的年龄相关变化相似。此外，两性的抗感染药物使用的年龄相关变化也相似。
本研究表明，与丧偶前相比，丧偶后个体更有可能使用抗感染药物，但这种变化可能与年龄的增长有关，而且在两性中相似。
