Women’s socioeconomic position in ontogeny is associated with improved immune function and lower stress, but not with height

Abstract

immune function, height and resource accumulation comprise important life history traits in humans. Resource availability models arising from life history theory suggest that socioeconomic conditions influence immune function, growth and health status. In this study, we tested whether there are associations between family income during ontogeny, adult height, cortisol level and immune response in women. A hepatitis B vaccine was administered to 66 young Latvian women from different socioeconomic backgrounds, and blood samples were then collected to measure the level of antibodies that the women produced in response to the vaccination. cortisol levels were measured from plasma samples pre-and post-vaccination. Women from wealthier families had lower cortisol levels, and women from the highest family income group had the highest levels of antibody titers against hepatitis B vaccine. No significant relationships were observed between cortisol level and immune function, nor between family income and height. the results show that income level during ontogeny is associated with the strength of immune response and with psychoneuroendocrine pathways underlying stress perception in early adulthood. The findings indicate that the quality of the developmental niche is associated with the condition-dependent expression of immune function and stress response. Life history theory focuses on how organisms allocate finite resources to maximize their evolutionary fitness, with the ultimate goal of passing their genes to the next generation. Life history theory is predicated on the idea that the principal functions of organismal growth, survival and reproduction require sufficient resources, parceled out from the finite energy that each organism can extract from its environment 1,2. Scarcity of bioenergetic resources restrains the development of central life history functions such as somatic growth, immune function, reproduction and socioeconomic development 3-10. It has been shown that growing up in poverty causes developmental

Adolescent Cranial Volume as a Sensitive Marker of Parental Investment: The Role of Non-material Resources?

“…Correlations between height and income per family member were roughly similar among boys and girls (boys: r s = 0.19; girls: r s = 0.14). This result differs from findings of two studies performed in Latvia in 2010 where income per family member correlated positively with height in boys ( Krams et al, 2019 ) but not in girls ( Rubika et al, 2020 ). However, we found that cranial volume was more strongly associated with income among boys ( r s = 0.18) than among girls ( r s = 0.08).…”

“…In addition, we asked whether different growth constraints affect boys and girls in a similar manner in the light of an idea that males are less buffered against the environmental effects on growth and development ( Stinson, 1985 ). For instance, studies in Latvia in the period following economic transition at the end of twentieth century have reported that material resource shortage at infancy relates to the height of men more strongly than to the height of women ( Krams et al, 2019 ; Rubika et al, 2020 ).…”

Physical cues of partner quality

“…A study on a similar population of women as the Latvian male sample of Krams et al (2019), however, found that women's height was not predicted by their family income during development, even though immune function was (Rubika et al, 2020). It is thus possible that the development and expression of male height are condition-dependent in a similar way to many other sexually selected traits, therefore being more sensitive to resource availability than female height (Krams et al, 2019;Rubika et al, 2020). Overall, height can be useful as a cue of good genes, better immunity, higher intelligence, and more resource-rich developmental environments in men (Marioni et al, 2014;Krams et al, 2019), making male height an important cue for women for a number of different reasons.…”

“…Higher family socioeconomic status during development predicts both greater height and improved immune function in adult men, suggesting that these traits cluster towards the slow end of the life history spectrum (Krams et al, 2019). A study on a similar population of women as the Latvian male sample of Krams et al (2019), however, found that women's height was not predicted by their family income during development, even though immune function was (Rubika et al, 2020). It is thus possible that the development and expression of male height are condition-dependent in a similar way to many other sexually selected traits, therefore being more sensitive to resource availability than female height (Krams et al, 2019;Rubika et al, 2020).…”

Female bisexuality

“…Each organism's life history can be summarized as a cumulative series of energyallocation decisions that operate within the finite energy budgets available to each organism; as such, these energy-allocation decisions are represented by a suite of developmental, physiological, psychological, behavioral, and reproductive traits (Krams et al, 2019;Luoto, 2019;Rubika et al, 2020;Wells & Stock, 2020). Life history strategies encompass body growth (how fast and large to grow), how to address risks and defend against threats, and how to schedule reproductive effort, including the number of offspring and the investment allocated to each offspring, which curtails energy budgets available to other activities (Ellison, 2017;Krams et al, 2019;Wells & Stock, 2020;Worthman & Trang, 2018).…”