Abstract
Toxoplasma gondii (Nicolle et Manceaux, 1908) is an intracellular parasite that can cause ongoing latent infection persisting for the duration of a non-definitive host's life. Affecting approximately one-third of the world's population, latent toxoplasmosis has been associated with neuropsychological outcomes and a previous report suggested an association between latent toxoplasmosis and adult height. Given the large number of people with latent toxoplasmosis and its potential associations with human height, we sought to better understand the association between latent toxoplasmosis and human morphology by evaluating seropositivity for T. gondii and multiple body measures reported in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey III (NHANES III) and in the more recent continuous NHANES data sets from the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for which data on T. gondii are available. In these analyses, latent toxoplasmosis was not associated with any of the body measures assessed in the NHANES datasets even after taking into account interactions between latent toxoplasmosis and testosterone suggesting that in these samples, latent toxoplasmosis is not associated with adult morphology including height.
Highlights
Latent infection with the intracellular protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii (Nicolle et Manceaux, 1908) is prevalent in an estimated 30% of the world’s population with considerable variation between countries (Jones et al 2014)
Utilising the publically available National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys III (NHANES III) and the continuous NHANES data sets made available by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), we evaluated associations between latent toxoplasmosis and multiple body measures while controlling for variables such as sex, socioeconomic status, educational attainment and race-ethnicity that could confound apparent associations between latent toxoplasmosis and human morphology
Among the three NHANES data sets analysed in the present study, infection with T. gondii ranged from 18% (NHANES III) to 9% (2009–2012 NHANES), indicating a declining prevalence of latent toxoplasmosis in the US
Summary
Latent infection with the intracellular protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii (Nicolle et Manceaux, 1908) is prevalent in an estimated 30% of the world’s population with considerable variation between countries (Jones et al 2014). Given the high prevalence of latent toxoplasmosis and its reported associations with human cognitive function and morphology whether via testosterone influencing behaviour related to exposure to T. gondii or direct effects of latent toxoplasmosis itself on human morphology, we sought to further investigate the relationship between latent toxoplasmosis and human morphology using multiple body measures in addition to height in both women and men in large, chronologically distinct adult samples.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
