NETEC Resource Library

Identification of acutely sick people and facial cues of sickness

Elemento

Click for External Resource*


Click to read full article*


*The link above may share a zip file (.zip) hosted on repository.netecweb.org. Zip files will download automatically.
*All other links are external and will open in a new window. If you click an external link, you are leaving the NETEC site, and we do not maintain, review, or endorse these materials. See our terms of use.


Item Type

Publicación

Terms of Use

By accessing these materials you are agreeing to our terms of use, which may be found here: Terms of Use.

Example only: NETEC provides this item for reference purposes but does not endorse its content. Newer versions may be in place at the providing institution.

Was this resource helpful?


Título

Identification of acutely sick people and facial cues of sickness

Materia

Descripción

Detection and avoidance of sick individuals have been proposed as essential components in a behavioural defence against disease, limiting the risk of contamination.

Fecha

2018-01-03

Citación

Axelsson, John, Tina Sundelin, Mats J. Olsson, Kimmo Sorjonen, Charlotte Axelsson, Julie Lasselin, and Mats Lekander. 2018. "Identification of acutely sick people and facial cues of sickness." Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 285 (1870):20172430.

Resumen

Abstract

Detection and avoidance of sick individuals have been proposed as essential components in a behavioural defence against disease, limiting the risk of contamination. However, almost no knowledge exists on whether humans can detect sick individuals, and if so by what cues. Here, we demonstrate that untrained people can identify sick individuals above chance level by looking at facial photos taken 2 h after injection with a bacterial stimulus inducing an immune response (2.0 ng kg-1 lipopolysaccharide) or placebo, the global sensitivity index being d' = 0.405. Signal detection analysis (receiver operating characteristic curve area) showed an area of 0.62 (95% confidence intervals 0.60-0.63). Acutely sick people were rated by naive observers as having paler lips and skin, a more swollen face, droopier corners of the mouth, more hanging eyelids, redder eyes, and less glossy and patchy skin, as well as appearing more tired. Our findings suggest that facial cues associated with the skin, mouth and eyes can aid in the detection of acutely sick and potentially contagious people.

TRIAL REGISTRATION:

ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02529592.

Accesibilidad

Free online through PubMed

Collection

Related Resource Topic Exhibits