JournalTOCs

Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health
Number of Followers: 9

This is an Open Access Journal

Open Access journal
ISSN (Online) 2050-6201
Published by Oxford University Press

[424 journals]

Hygiene may attenuate selection for antibiotic resistance by changing
microbial community structure
- Pages: 1 - 7
  Abstract: Good hygiene, in both health care and the community, is central to containing the rise of antibiotic resistance, as well as to infection control more generally. But despite the well-known importance, the ecological mechanisms by which hygiene (or other transmission control measures) affect the evolution of resistance remain to be elucidated. Using metacommunity ecology theory, we here propose that hygiene attenuates the effect of antibiotic selection pressure. Specifically, we predict that hygiene limits the scope for antibiotics to induce competitive release of resistant bacteria within treated hosts, and that this is due to an effect of hygiene on the distribution of resistant and sensitive strains in the host population. We show this in a mathematical model of bacterial metacommunity dynamics, and test the results against data on antibiotic resistance, antibiotic treatment, and the use of alcohol-based hand rub in long-term care facilities. The data are consistent with hand rub use attenuating the resistance promoting effect of antibiotic treatment. Our results underscore the importance of hygiene, and point to a concrete way to weaken the link between antibiotic use and increasing resistance.
  PubDate: Wed, 18 Jan 2023 00:00:00 GMT
  DOI: 10.1093/emph/eoac038
  Issue No: Vol. 11, No. 1 (2023)
Food insecurity, diet and mental distress among resource insecure students
during COVID-19
- Pages: 18 - 29
  Abstract: Background and objectivesIt is well documented that college student populations are vulnerable to food insecurity and other adverse environmental conditions. Additionally, exposure to environmental adversity can have deleterious, long-term effects on physical and mental health. This study applies evolutionary life history theory to examine the relationship between environmental adversity, mental distress and diet among resource insecure university students during the COVID-19 pandemic.MethodologyStructured and semi-structured surveys were used to assess perceptions of environmental adversity (including mortality risk, food insecurity and resource availability; and changes in these factors over the course of COVID-19), mental distress, diet and use of campus support services. Participants included 51 college students recruited through an economic crisis center located at a large public university in southern California. ResultsMost students were experiencing mental distress and food insecurity, and food insecurity and other components of adversity increased during COVID-19. Food insecurity was significantly associated with both perceived extrinsic mortality risk and mental distress, whereas mental distress was significantly associated with reduced dietary quality and caloric intake. Use of two or more campus support resources and/or living with family or rent free disrupted the associations of food insecurity with extrinsic mortality risk and mental distress. Conclusion and ImplicationThis study contributes to a growing body of applied evolutionary frameworks concerned with the health and wellbeing of economically vulnerable populations. It also provides novel insights informed by life history theory into interventions and recommendations for improving support services for financially insecure college students.
  PubDate: Wed, 11 Jan 2023 00:00:00 GMT
  DOI: 10.1093/emph/eoad001
  Issue No: Vol. 11, No. 1 (2023)
COVID-19 and Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health
- Pages: 42 - 44
  Abstract: According to the World Health Organization, 6.7 million people have died from COVID-19 as of the start of 2023. These deaths are tragic with many societal ramifications. For example, more than 10 million children have lost caregivers globally through 1 May 2022 [1], while many others have suffered dramatic losses in educational attainment [2]. At times, the pandemic has overwhelmed healthcare services that have resulted in additional non-COVID death and suffering. COVID-19 has also caused sharp declines in mental health, particularly among children and adolescents [3, 4]. Mental disorders, such as depression and anxiety, are often debilitating and long-lasting, thus contributing greatly to years lived with disability. Some bright spots have also occurred, including the marked reduction in deaths due to influenza in the first year of the pandemic due to masking and social isolation and the rapid rollout of vaccines using new technologies such as mRNA vaccines, which offer great promise in battling other infectious diseases.
  PubDate: Sat, 28 Jan 2023 00:00:00 GMT
  DOI: 10.1093/emph/eoad002
  Issue No: Vol. 11, No. 1 (2023)
Norman A. Johnson’s, Darwin’s Reach: 21st Century Applications
of Evolutionary Biology
- Pages: 78 - 79
  Abstract: Pure and Applied Evolution—A Review of Johnson’sNorman A.Darwin’s Reach: 21st Century Applications of Evolutionary Biology
  PubDate: Fri, 03 Mar 2023 00:00:00 GMT
  DOI: 10.1093/emph/eoad003
  Issue No: Vol. 11, No. 1 (2023)
Disgusting odors trigger the oral immune system
- Pages: 8 - 17
  Abstract: Recent research has characterized the behavioral defense against disease. In particular the detection of sickness cues, the adaptive reactions (e.g. avoidance) to these cues and the mediating role of disgust have been the focus. A presumably important but less investigated part of a behavioral defense is the immune system response of the observer of sickness cues. Odors are intimately connected to disease and disgust, and research has shown how olfaction conveys sickness cues in both animals and humans. This study aims to test whether odorous sickness cues (i.e. disgusting odors) can trigger a preparatory immune response in humans. We show that subjective and objective disgust measures, as well as TNFα levels in saliva increased immediately after exposure to disgusting odors in a sample of 36 individuals. Altogether, these results suggest a collaboration between behavioral mechanisms of pathogen avoidance in olfaction, mediated by the emotion of disgust, and mechanisms of pathogen elimination facilitated by inflammatory mediators.Disgusting stimuli are associated with an increased risk of infection. We here test whether disgusting odors, can trigger an immune response in the oral cavity. The results indicate an increase level of TNFα in the saliva. This supports that disease cues can trigger a preparatory response in the oral cavity.
  PubDate: Thu, 15 Dec 2022 00:00:00 GMT
  DOI: 10.1093/emph/eoac042
  Issue No: Vol. 11, No. 1 (2022)
Lower testosterone levels are associated with higher risk of death in men
- Pages: 30 - 40
  Abstract: Background and ObjectivesTestosterone plays an important role in regulating male development, reproduction and health. Declining levels across the lifespan may reflect, or even contribute to, chronic disease and mortality in men.MethodologyRelationships between testosterone levels and male mortality were analyzed using data from multiple samples of the cross-sectional National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (n = 10 225). Target outcomes included known deaths from heart disease, malignant neoplasms, chronic lower respiratory diseases, cerebrovascular diseases, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes mellitus, influenza and pneumonia, kidney diseases, and accidents or unintentional injuries.ResultsResults of discrete-time hazard models revealed that lower levels of testosterone were related to higher mortality for the majority of disease categories in either an age-dependent or age-independent fashion. Analysis of all-cause mortality—which included deaths from any known disease—also revealed greater general risk for those with lower testosterone levels. For most disease categories, the hazard associated with low testosterone was especially evident at older ages when mortality from that particular ailment was already elevated. Notably, testosterone levels were not related to mortality risk for deaths unrelated to chronic disease (i.e. accidents and injuries).Conclusions and ImplicationsWhile the causal direction of relationships between testosterone and mortality risk remains unclear, these results may reflect the decline in testosterone that accompanies many disease states. Accordingly, the relationship between testosterone and male mortality may be indirect; ill individuals are expected to have both lower testosterone and higher mortality risk.
  PubDate: Mon, 26 Dec 2022 00:00:00 GMT
  DOI: 10.1093/emph/eoac044
  Issue No: Vol. 11, No. 1 (2022)
No evidence that spice consumption is a cancer prevention mechanism in
human populations
- Pages: 45 - 52
  Abstract: BackgroundWhy humans historically began to incorporate spices into their diets is still a matter of unresolved debate. For example, a recent study (Bromham et al. There is little evidence that spicy food in hot countries is an adaptation to reducing infection risk. Nat Hum Behav 2021;5:878–91.) did not support the most popular hypothesis that spice consumption was a practice favoured by selection in certain environments to reduce food poisoning, parasitic infections, and foodborne diseases.MethodsBecause several spices are known to have anticancer effects, we explored the hypothesis that natural selection and/or cultural evolution may have favoured spice consumption as an adaptive prophylactic response to reduce the burden of cancer pathology. We used linear models to investigate the potential relationship between age-standardized gastrointestinal cancer rates and spice consumption in 36 countries.ResultsPatterns of spice are not consistent with a cancer mitigation mechanism: the age-standardized rate of almost all gastrointestinal cancers was not related to spice consumption. ConclusionsDirection other than foodborne pathogens and cancers should be explored to understand the health reasons, if any, why our ancestors developed a taste for spices.
  PubDate: Thu, 24 Nov 2022 00:00:00 GMT
  DOI: 10.1093/emph/eoac040
  Issue No: Vol. 11, No. 1 (2022)
Sound reasons for unsound sleep: Comparative support for the sentinel
hypothesis in industrial and nonindustrial groups
- Pages: 53 - 66
  Abstract: Background and objectivesSleep is a vulnerable state in which individuals are more susceptible to threat, which may have led to evolved mechanisms for increasing safety. The sentinel hypothesis proposes that brief awakenings during sleep may be a strategy for detecting and responding to environmental threats. Observations of sleep segmentation and group sentinelization in hunter-gatherer and small-scale communities support this hypothesis, but to date it has not been tested in comparisons with industrial populations characterized by more secure sleep environments.MethodologyHere, we compare wake after sleep onset (WASO), a quantitative measure of nighttime awakenings, between two nonindustrial and two industrial populations: Hadza hunter-gatherers (n = 33), Malagasy small-scale agriculturalists (n = 38), and Hispanic (n = 1,531) and non-Hispanic White (NHW) (n = 347) Americans. We compared nighttime awakenings between these groups using actigraphically-measured sleep data. We fit linear models to assess whether WASO varies across groups, controlling for sex and age.ResultsWe found that WASO varies significantly by group membership and is highest in Hadza (2.44 h) and Malagasy (1.93 h) and lowest in non-Hispanic Whites (0.69 h). Hispanics demonstrate intermediate WASO (0.86 h), which is significantly more than NHW participants. After performing supplementary analysis within the Hispanic sample, we found that WASO is significantly and positively associated with increased perception of neighborhood violence.Conclusions and implicationsConsistent with principles central to evolutionary medicine, we propose that evolved mechanisms to increase vigilance during sleep may now be mismatched with relatively safer environments, and in part responsible for driving poor sleep health.
  PubDate: Tue, 22 Nov 2022 00:00:00 GMT
  DOI: 10.1093/emph/eoac039
  Issue No: Vol. 11, No. 1 (2022)
Evobiopsychosocial medicine
- Pages: 67 - 77
  Abstract: The biopsychosocial model remains the de facto framework of current healthcare, but lacks causational depth, scientific rigour, or any recognition of the importance of evolutionary theory for understanding health and disease. In this article it is updated to integrate Tinbergen’s four questions with the three biopsychosocial levels. This ‘evobiopsychosocial’ schema provides a more complete framework for understanding causation of medical conditions. Its application is exemplified by tabulating depression, rheumatoid arthritis and COVID-19 within its format, which highlights the direct research and practical applications uniquely offered by evolutionary medicine. An evobiopsychosocial framework can serve as a useful tool to introduce evolutionary concepts into mainstream medicine by highlighting the broad and specific contributions of evolutionary analysis to researching, treating and preventing health conditions, providing a suitable next step for the mainstream model of medicine.
  PubDate: Tue, 22 Nov 2022 00:00:00 GMT
  DOI: 10.1093/emph/eoac041
  Issue No: Vol. 11, No. 1 (2022)