The Impact of Having a Holiday or Work in Fiji on Perceived Immune Fitness

Abstract

The Western 24 h society poses great psychological and physical demands on people, which may result in complaints such as stress or being overworked, and reduced immune fitness. Having a holiday may be a good way to reduce work-related stress and reduced mood and improve perceived immune fitness. Therefore, the aim of the current study was to assess the impact of having a holiday or work on perceived immune fitness and mood. A survey was held among N = 246 young adults who were on holiday in Fiji, and N = 87 subjects who were in Fiji for work. The sample comprised both students and individuals with a job at home. Past year immune status was assessed with the Immune Status Questionnaire (ISQ). Current perceived immune functioning and mood were rated from 0 (very poor) to 10 (excellent). Assessments were made for two occasions: (1) the current situation (in Fiji), and (2) at home (before traveling). Compared to being at home, both students and working individuals on holiday in Fiji reported significantly improved immune fitness and significantly improved mood. For example, both groups reported reduction of stress of about 60% while in Fiji. In students who came to Fiji for work or spending a holiday, improvements in perceived immune fitness were more pronounced than in working people coming on holiday in Fiji. In contrast, working people on holiday reported greater improvements in mood compared to students. The magnitude of improvements were significantly greater among women than men. In conclusion, the data suggest that both having a holiday or working in Fiji is associated with significant improvements of mood, which were themselves associated with improved immune fitness. The findings are of importance for the tourism industry as they demonstrate that, in addition to leisure (or being active) as a purpose for having a holiday, the observed mental health benefits and improved perceived immune fitness provide an additional motive to have a holiday.

Immune fitness and lifestyle habits of Saudi medical students: a cross sectional study

“…The study’s most intriguing findings concern the immune health status of our participants with a borderline ISQ score. Consistently, borderline ISQ score of 6.2 was also reported among young students from Verster et al (2021) . Females currently have significantly lower ISQ scores than males, suggesting a better immunological status among males than female, which agrees with previous research from the Netherlands, though a different tool was used (IFQ) ( Lantman et al, 2017 ).…”

“…Females currently have significantly lower ISQ scores than males, suggesting a better immunological status among males than female, which agrees with previous research from the Netherlands, though a different tool was used (IFQ) ( Lantman et al, 2017 ). Females have reported poorer sleep ( Ibrahim et al, 2017 ; Burgard & Ailshire, 2013 ), more consumption of fast food ( Yardimci et al, 2012 ), and to be more likely to have a sedentary lifestyle ( Varela-Mato et al, 2012 ; Edwards & Sackett, 2016 ) anxiety and stress ( Verster et al, 2021 ) compared to males, which may explain the observed sex disparities due to the association of these conditions with various aspects of immune system as discussed earlier. This is also apparent in the present study, which found that females reported less physical activity and sleep duration than males.…”

COVID-19 Lockdown Effects on Academic Functioning, Mood, and Health Correlates: Data from Dutch Pharmacy Students, PhD Candidates and Postdocs

“…The use of 1-item scales has been validated previously [33], and these mood ratings have been applied successfully in previous studies [36][37][38]. Additionally, the 1-item assessment of 'being active' has been successfully applied in previous research [39,40]. The items were rated for (1) the year 2019 (the period before COVID-19), (2) the first lockdown period (15 March-11 May 2020), (3) summer 2020 (no lockdown) and ( 4) the second lockdown (November 2020-April 2021).…”

Pandemic Preparedness: Maintaining Adequate Immune Fitness by Attaining a Normal, Healthy Body Weight

“…For the present analysis, data on sex, height, age, and perceived immune fitness from various studies were pooled [ 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 ]. Studies were included if immune fitness was assessed with the immune status questionnaire (ISQ) and/or single item perceived immune fitness scale.…”