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Perceived Stress and Psychological Well-Being Are Associated With Antibody Status After Meningitis C Conjugate Vaccination

School of Sport and Exercise Sciences (V.E.B., C.R., D.C.) and Department of Immunology, School of Medicine (M.D.), University of Birmingham, Birmingham, England.

Address reprint requests to: Victoria Burns, School of Sport and Exercise Sciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, B15 2TT, England. Email: v.e.burns{at}bham.ac.uk

OBJECTIVE: Psychological stress has been associated with reduced immune response to a variety of vaccinations. This study is the first to examine antibody status after vaccination with a conjugate vaccine, in which a polysaccharide antigen is conjugated to a protein to elicit a thymus-dependent antibody response.

METHODS: Sixty undergraduate students, who had received the meningitis C conjugate vaccine before recruitment, attended a single testing session. They provided a blood sample and completed a battery of questionnaires, including the Life Events Scale for Students, Perceived Stress Scale, and General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28). Both meningitis C–specific antibody titer and the serum bactericidal assay titer to whole meningitis C bacteria were assayed.

RESULTS: High perceived stress, but not life events stress, was associated with low antibody titers. Poor antibody titers were also predicted by relatively low levels of psychological well-being as measured by the GHQ-28. Of the GHQ-28 subscales, anxiety/insomnia and social dysfunction were associated with antibody status. No psychological variables emerged from bivariate analyses as predictive of the adequacy of bactericidal titer.

CONCLUSIONS: This study provides the first evidence that antibody status after a conjugate vaccination may be susceptible to psychological influences.

Key Words: meningitis C conjugate vaccination, • perceived stress, • life events, • psychological well-being, • anxiety, • social dysfunction.

Abbreviations: BMI = body mass index;; ELISA = enzyme-linked immunoassay;; GHQ-28 = General Health Questionnaire (28-item version);; IgG = immunoglobulin G;; IQR = interquartile range;; LESS = Life Events Scale for Students;; OR = odds ratio;; PSS = perceived stress scale;; SBA = serum bactericidal assay.

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