Sanitization of Early Life and Microbial Dysbiosis

Jun, Shelly; Drall, Kelsea M.; Matenchuk, Brittany A.; McLean, Cara; Nielsen, Charlene C.; Obiakor, Chinwe Vivien; Leek, Aaron Van der; Kozyrskyj, Anita L.

doi:10.3390/challe9020043

Cited by 4 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 52 publications

(60 reference statements)

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“…These include improvements in immune health ( Li, 2010 ; Rook, 2013 ), mental health ( Birch et al, 2020 ; Callaghan et al, 2020 ), and cardiovascular health ( Yeager et al, 2020 ). In the alternative direction (i.e., spending more time in natural environments which may help to establish more positive attitudes toward microbes), we can hypothesize that our positive attitudes toward microbes could conceivably reduce the likelihood that we carry out mass (non-targeted) sterilization of our local environments, which could also have important implications for our health ( Jun et al, 2018 ; Parks et al, 2020 ; Prescott, 2020 ; Renz and Skevaki, 2020 ). This hypothesis requires further research and would benefit from the collection of data on people’s actions (e.g., related to environmental avoidance and sterilization).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, far less than 1% of the microbes on the planet are human pathogens ( Zobell and Rittenberg, 2011 ; Balloux and van Dorp, 2017 ). Moreover, germaphobia may have contributed to the current explosion in human immune-related disorders (such as diabetes, asthma, and inflammatory bowel disease) ( Jun et al, 2018 ; Timmis et al, 2019 ). This is thought to be attributed to the notion that exposure to environmental microbiomes—the diverse network of microbes in a given environment—plays an important role in human health ( Rook et al, 2003 ; Dannemiller et al, 2014 ; Stein et al, 2016 ; Arleevskaya et al, 2019 ; Liddicoat et al, 2019 ; Selway et al, 2020 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Germaphobia! Does Our Relationship With and Knowledge of Biodiversity Affect Our Attitudes Toward Microbes?

2021

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Germaphobia – a pathological aversion to microorganisms – could be contributing to an explosion in human immune-related disorders via mass sterilization of surfaces and reduced exposure to biodiversity. Loss of biodiversity and people’s weaker connection to nature, along with poor microbial literacy may be augmenting the negative consequences of germaphobia on ecosystem health. In this study, we created an online questionnaire to acquire data on attitudes toward, and knowledge of microbes. We collected data on nature connectedness and interactions with nature and explored the relationships between these variables. Although the study had an international reach (n = 1,184), the majority of responses came from England, United Kingdom (n = 993). We found a significant association between attitudes toward microbes and both duration and frequency of visits to natural environments. A higher frequency of visits to nature per week, and a longer duration spent in nature per visit, was significantly associated with positive attitudes toward microbes. We found no association between nature connectedness and attitudes toward microbes. We found a significant relationship between knowledge of “lesser known” microbial groups (e.g., identifying that fungi, algae, protozoa, and archaea are microbes) and positive attitudes toward microbes. However, we also found that people who identified viruses as being microbes expressed less positive views of microbes overall–this could potentially be attributed to a “COVID-19 effect.” Our results suggest that basic microbial literacy and nature engagement may be important in reducing/preventing germaphobia-associated attitudes. The results also suggest that a virus-centric phenomenon (e.g., COVID-19) could increase broader germaphobia-associated attitudes. As the rise of immune-related disorders and mental health conditions have been linked to germaphobia, reduced biodiversity, and non-targeted sterilization, our findings point to a feasible strategy to potentially help ameliorate these negative consequences. Further research is needed, but greater emphasis on microbial literacy and promoting time spent in nature could potentially be useful in promoting resilience in human health and more positive/constructive attitudes toward the foundations of our ecosystems—the microorganisms.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Germaphobia! Does Our Relationship With and Knowledge of Biodiversity Affect Our Attitudes Toward Microbes?

2021

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“…These include improvements in immune health (Li et al 2010;Rook, 2013), mental health (Birch et al 2020;Callaghan et al 2020), and cardiovascular health (Yao et al 2020;Yeager et al 2020). In the alternative direction (i.e., spending more time in natural environments which may help to establish more positive attitudes towards microbes), our positive attitudes towards microbes could conceivably reduce the likelihood that we carry out mass (non-targeted) sterilisation of our local environments, which could also have important implications for our health (Jun et al 2018;Parks et al 2020;Prescott, 2020;Renz and Skevaki, 2020). This relationship could also be non-dichotomous (or potentially even a virtuous loop) in the sense that our positive attitudes towards microbes may predispose us to spend more time in nature--an act that may enhance our positive attitudes towards microbes, and the feedback continues.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, far less than 1% of the microbes on the planet are human pathogens (Zobell and Rittenberg, 2011;Balloux and van Dorp, 2017). Moreover, germaphobia may have contributed to the current explosion in human immune-related disorders (such as diabetes, asthma, and inflammatory bowel disease) (Jun et al 2018;Timmis et al 2019). This is thought to be attributed to the notion that exposure to environmental microbiomes -the diverse network of microbes in a given environment -plays an important role in human health (Rook et al 2003;Dannemiller et al 2014;Stein et al 2016;Arleevskaya et al 2019;Liddicoat et al 2019;Selway et al 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Germaphobia! Does our Relationship with, and Knowledge of Biodiversity Affect our Attitudes Towards Microbes?

Robinson

Cameron

Jørgensen

2021

Preprint

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Germaphobia - a pathological aversion to microorganisms - could be contributing to an explosion in human immune-related disorders via mass sterilisation of surfaces and reduced exposure to biodiversity. Loss of biodiversity and our connectedness to nature, along with poor microbial literacy may be augmenting the negative consequences of germaphobia on ecosystem health. In this study, we created an online questionnaire to acquire data on attitudes towards, and knowledge of microbes. We collected data on nature connectedness and interactions with nature and explored the relationships between these variables. We found a significant association between attitudes towards microbes and both duration and frequency of visits to natural environments. A higher frequency of visits to nature per week, and a longer duration spent in nature per visit, significantly associated with positive attitudes towards microbes. We found no association between nature connectedness and attitudes towards microbes. We found a significant relationship between knowledge of "lesser known" microbial groups (e.g., identifying that fungi, algae, protozoa, and archaea are microbes) and positive attitudes towards microbes. However, we also found that people who correctly identified viruses as being microbes expressed less positive views of microbes overall - this could potentially be attributed to a COVID-19 effect. Our results suggest that basic microbial literacy and nature engagement may be important in reducing/preventing germaphobia. The results also suggest that a virus-centric phenomenon (e.g., COVID-19) could increase broader germaphobia. As the rise of immune-related disorders and mental health conditions have been linked to germaphobia, reduced biodiversity, and non-targeted sterilisation, our findings point to a feasible strategy to potentially help ameliorate these negative consequences. A greater emphasis on microbial literacy and promoting time spent in nature could be useful in promoting resilience in human health and more positive/constructive attitudes towards the foundations of our ecosystems - the microorganisms.

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“…Household uses of cleaning products emit substances of concern in indoor air. However, because some users assume that infectious diseases are caused by the presence of microorganisms, seeking a high level of cleanliness can be part of a preventive logic, especially in the presence of children [67,68]. This preventive logic could be reinforced by marketing and advertising strategies, especially during the global COVID-19 pandemic.…”

Section: Risk Perceptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cleaning product emissions and indoor built environments: Exposure and health risk assessments from experiments under realistic indoor conditions

Karr

Nicolas

Maupetit

et al. 2021

Building and Environment

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Sanitization of Early Life and Microbial Dysbiosis

Cited by 4 publications

References 52 publications

Germaphobia! Does Our Relationship With and Knowledge of Biodiversity Affect Our Attitudes Toward Microbes?

Germaphobia! Does Our Relationship With and Knowledge of Biodiversity Affect Our Attitudes Toward Microbes?

Germaphobia! Does our Relationship with, and Knowledge of Biodiversity Affect our Attitudes Towards Microbes?

Cleaning product emissions and indoor built environments: Exposure and health risk assessments from experiments under realistic indoor conditions

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