{"doi":"10.1002/ajhb.70063","title":"Circulating Epstein–Barr Virus Antibody Levels as a Biomarker of Socioecological Adversity in Amazonian Ecuador","abstract":"OBJECTIVES: Circulating Epstein-Barr virus antibodies (EBV-Ab) are used as a biomarker of chronic stress in high-income settings, but their relevance in environments with a high burden of infectious disease, nutritional constraints, and limited resources is less clear. We investigated EBV-Ab as a biomarker of adversity in a setting where local ecology and economy may affect immune development differently than in wealthy countries. METHODS: We measured EBV-Ab in finger-prick dried blood spots collected from Indigenous Shuar (n = 433) and non-Indigenous Colonos (n = 84) ranging from < 1 to 87 years old in Amazonian Ecuador. For a subset of adults (≥ 15 years, n = 210), we collected socioeconomic information (income, education, and occupation) and assessed household-level market integration. We determined the most important predictors of EBV-Ab for adults and children using multi-model averaging of linear regression models. RESULTS: Male children (< 15 years) had lower EBV-Ab than female children (model averaged β [SE]: -0.238 [0.066]). For adults, Shuar had higher EBV-Ab than Colonos (model averaged β [SE]: 0.235 [0.113]), and high systolic blood pressure was an important predictor of elevated EBV-Ab (model averaged β [SE]: 0.088 [0.047]). Individuals who reported unpaid domestic work as their primary occupation had higher EBV-Ab than agricultural workers (model averaged β [SE]: 0.302 [0.113]). Individuals living in houses with more market-sourced infrastructure had lower EBV-Ab (model averaged β [SE]: -0.088 [0.068]). CONCLUSIONS: Circulating EBV-Ab may capture context-specific aspects of socioecological adversity in Amazonian Ecuador, highlighting disparities in EBV-Ab between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Ecuadorians and differences in immune function related to market integration.","journal":"American Journal of Human Biology","year":2025,"id":528217,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":2,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9668,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2025-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":649930,"name":"Melissa A. Liebert","orcid":"0000-0001-8013-6773","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":649932,"name":"Geeta N. Eick","orcid":"0000-0001-7512-3265","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":770959,"name":"Julia Ridgeway-Diaz","orcid":null,"position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":649931,"name":"Felicia C. Madimenos","orcid":"0000-0001-5442-232X","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":561584,"name":"Aaron D. Blackwell","orcid":"0000-0002-5871-9865","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":649928,"name":"Tara J. Cepon‐Robins","orcid":"0000-0002-4508-8507","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":615566,"name":"Samuel S. Urlacher","orcid":"0000-0002-6489-4117","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":649934,"name":"Lawrence S. Sugiyama","orcid":"0000-0003-1279-0006","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":649933,"name":"J. Josh Snodgrass","orcid":"0000-0002-7021-777X","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":770374,"name":"Tyler M. Barrett","orcid":"0000-0001-8166-8704","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":112,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:50:48.492873Z","pmid":"40351282","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}