Psychosocial variables and vaccination: a life course approach

It is a widely held view that experiences and emotions can affect our health. However, only over the past twenty years or so has research shown how psychosocial factors such as stress, social support, and personality directly influence the body. The immune system was historically thought to act independently of other bodily systems, but it is now known that psychosocial factors can influence numbers of immune cells and even the function of the immune system. This paper will present contemporary evidence for an association between immunity and sources of chronic stress, social support, and personality using the antibody response to vaccination as a model. It will illustrate that the specific psychosocial factors which influence immunity, and thereby health, vary across the life course and act in synergy with ageing to influence the effectiveness of the immune system.