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Skin fairness is a better predictor for impaired physical and mental health than hair redness.

ABSTRACT: About 1-2% of people of European origin have red hair. Especially female redheads are known to suffer higher pain sensitivity and higher incidence of some disorders, including skin cancer, Parkinson's disease and endometriosis. Recently, an explorative study performed on 7,000 subjects showed that both male and female redheads score worse on many health-related variables and express a higher incidence of cancer. Here, we ran the preregistered study on a population of 4,117 subjects who took part in an anonymous electronic survey. We confirmed that the intensity of hair redness negatively correlated with physical health, mental health, fecundity and sexual desire, and positively with the number of kinds of drugs prescribed by a doctor currently taken, and with reported symptoms of impaired mental health. It also positively correlated with certain neuropsychiatric disorders, most strongly with learning disabilities disorder and phobic disorder in men and general anxiety disorder in women. However, most of these associations disappeared when the darkness of skin was included in the models, suggesting that skin fairness, not hair redness, is responsible for the associations. We discussed two possible explanations for the observed pattern, the first based on vitamin D deficiency due to the avoidance of sunbathing by subjects with sensitive skin, including some redheads, and second based on folic acid depletion in fair skinned subjects, again including some (a different subpopulation of) redheads. It must be emphasized, however, that both of these explanations are only hypothetical as no data on the concentration of vitamin D or folic acid are available for our subjects. Our results, as well as the conclusions of current reviews, suggest that the new empirical studies on the concentration of vitamin D and folic acids in relation to skin and hair pigmentation are urgently needed.

SUBMITTER: Flegr J

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6888829 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Skin fairness is a better predictor for impaired physical and mental health than hair redness.

Flegr Jaroslav J Sýkorová Kateřina K

Scientific reports 20191202 1

About 1-2% of people of European origin have red hair. Especially female redheads are known to suffer higher pain sensitivity and higher incidence of some disorders, including skin cancer, Parkinson's disease and endometriosis. Recently, an explorative study performed on 7,000 subjects showed that both male and female redheads score worse on many health-related variables and express a higher incidence of cancer. Here, we ran the preregistered study on a population of 4,117 subjects who took part ...[more]

PMID: 31792316

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Project description:PurposeHealth-related quality of life (HRQOL) in older persons is influenced by physical and mental health, as well as by their social contacts and social support. Older women and men have disparate types of social networks; they each value social ties differently and experience loneliness in unique and personal ways. The aim of this study is, therefore, to determine the longitudinal association between loneliness and social isolation with HRQOL in older people-separated by gender.MethodsData stem from the third and fourth follow-up of the ESTHER study-a population-based cohort study of the older population in Germany. A sample of 2171 older women and men (mean age: 69.3 years, range 57-84 years) were included in this study; HRQOL was assessed by using the Short Form-12 questionnaire (SF-12). Data on physical and mental health, loneliness, and social networks were examined in the course of comprehensive home visits by trained study doctors. Gender-specific linear regression analyses were performed to predict physical quality of life (measured by the PCS, physical component score of the SF-12) and mental quality of life (measured by the MCS, mental component score) after three years, adjusted by socioeconomic variables as well as physical, mental, and social well-being.ResultsAt baseline, PCS was 41.3 (SD: 10.0) in women and 42.2 (SD: 9.6) in men (p = .04). MCS was 47.0 (SD: 10.2) in women and 49.6 (SD: 8.6) in men (p < .001). In both genders, PCS and MCS were lower three years later. Loneliness at t0 was negatively associated with both PCS and MCS after three years (t1) among women, and with MCS but not PCS after three years among men. In both genders, the strongest predictor of PCS after three years was PCS at t0 (p < .001), while the strongest predictors of MCS after three years were MCS and PCS at t0.ConclusionHRQOL in elderly women and men is predicted by different biopsychosocial factors. Loneliness predicts decreased MCS after three years in both genders, but decreased PCS after three years only in women. Thus, a greater impact of loneliness on the health of older women can be surmised and should therefore be considered in the context of their medical care.

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Dataset Information

Skin fairness is a better predictor for impaired physical and mental health than hair redness.

Publications

Skin fairness is a better predictor for impaired physical and mental health than hair redness.

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