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. 2022 Aug 6;15(1):284.
doi: 10.1186/s13071-022-05398-1.

The association between Toxoplasma infection and mortality: the NHANES epidemiologic follow-up study

Jiaofeng Huang #  1 , Jiaolong Zheng #  2 , Bang Liu  1 , Lingling Lu  1 , Haicong Wu  2 , Su Lin  3 , Dongliang Li  4   5
Affiliations

The association between Toxoplasma infection and mortality: the NHANES epidemiologic follow-up study

Jiaofeng Huang et al. Parasit Vectors. .

Abstract

Background: Toxoplasma gondii has been reported to be associated with higher mortality in patients with schizophrenia. This study aimed to explore the relationship between T. gondii infection and 25-year mortality based on data from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III) database.

Methods: Cases with serum T. gondii antibody test results were included in this study and the corresponding mortality dataset was obtained from the US National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). Propensity score matching (PSM) was used to match age and sex between groups. The Cox proportional hazards model was used to evaluate the effect of T. gondii infection on mortality.

Results: A total of 14,181 cases were included in the analysis, of which 3831 (27.0%) were seropositive for T. gondii antibody. The median follow-up time of the whole cohort was 22.5 (interquartile range 16.3, 24.5) years. A total of 5082 deaths were observed in this cohort, a mortality rate of 35.8%. All-cause mortality was significantly higher in the seropositive group than in the seronegative group (50.0% vs 30.6%, P < 0.001). Kaplan-Meier analysis showed a significant difference in the survival time between two groups before and after PSM. Multivariate analysis showed that T. gondii infection was independently associated with higher all-cause mortality after adjusting for potential confounders.

Conclusions: Toxoplasma gondii infection is associated with higher mortality in general population.

Keywords: Mortality; NHANES; Toxoplasma gondii; Toxoplasmosis.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have nothing to declare.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Flow chart of case selection. NHANES, Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Kaplan–Meier analysis between the Toxoplasma gondii-seropositive group and the T. gondii-seronegative group before PSM (a) and after PSM (b). The P-values were calculated by the log-rank test. c Forest plot of the hazard ratio for mortality based on Cox regression analysis. CI Confidence interval, HR hazard ratio, PSM Propensity score matching
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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