High anxiety and altered immune function in college students

Previous research has examined the influence of stress on altered immune responses (Gruzelier, Smith, Nagy, & Henderson, 2001; Arranz, Guayerbas, & De la Fuente, 2007). The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationship between anxiety and immune function of college students. Anxiety levels for 92 students were measured by the Beck Anxiety Inventory, and immune function by a general health survey. Participants were then grouped as anxious or non-anxious according to their BAI score, those who were anxious having a BAI score of 16 or greater. Anxious students were found to have significantly higher frequencies of the following health measures: campus health center visits, allergies, digestive distress, earache, eye infections, food poisoning, rashes, and fever. Non-anxious students tend to get sick “seasonally,” while anxious students tend to get sick during exam periods or in times of stress, chi square = 15.00, p = .02, but there was no difference in vitamin consumption between the two groups. A factor analysis of the measured variables resulted in seven factors with an eigenvalue > 1.0 and two factors associated with high BAI scores. The first factor was associated with high anxiety, excellent eating and exercise habits, and high incidences of allergies, runny nose, and sore throat. The second factor was associated with high anxiety, high reoccurrences of illness, and high incidences of earaches, headaches, and fever. As predicted, many of these measures reflect reduced or altered lymphocyte and phagocyte activity.