University of Michigan, School of Public Health, Department of Epidemiology, 109 Observatory, 3rd Floor Tower, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2029, United States.
Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2010 Jul;35(6):932-43. doi: 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2009.12.009. Epub 2010 Jan 29.
It has often been hypothesized that stress and its biological consequences mediate the relationship between low socioeconomic status (SES) or minority status and poor cardiovascular disease outcomes. The objective of this study was to determine if daily cortisol patterns, a biomarker of the stress response, differ by race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status. Data were collected from 935 Black, White and Hispanic adults age 48-90 years old. Salivary cortisol samples were collected six times per day over 3 days: at awakening, 30min later, at 1000h, noon, 1800h and at bedtime. Blacks and Hispanics had lower levels of wake-up cortisol and less steep early declines, while Blacks had flatter and Hispanics steeper late day declines relative to Whites. Similarly the low socioeconomic status group also had lower levels of wake-up cortisol and less steep decline during the early part of the day. These patterns remained after adjustment for health behaviors and psychosocial factors. This study finds an association between salivary cortisol and race/ethnicity and SES in a multi-ethnic study population. Further work is needed to determine the health consequences of these differences.
人们常常假设，压力及其生物学后果在低社会经济地位（SES）或少数族裔地位与不良心血管疾病结局之间起中介作用。本研究的目的是确定应激反应的生物标志物——每日皮质醇模式是否因种族/民族和社会经济地位而不同。该研究共纳入了 935 名年龄在 48-90 岁的黑种人、白种人和西班牙裔成年人，收集了他们连续 3 天每天 6 次的唾液皮质醇样本：觉醒时、30 分钟后、1000 时、中午、1800 时和睡前。与白种人相比，黑种人和西班牙裔人的觉醒皮质醇水平较低，早期下降幅度较小，而黑种人的皮质醇水平下降较为平缓，西班牙裔人的皮质醇水平下降较为陡峭。同样，低社会经济地位组的人在白天早期的觉醒皮质醇水平也较低，下降幅度也较小。这些模式在调整了健康行为和心理社会因素后仍然存在。本研究在一个多民族研究人群中发现了唾液皮质醇与种族/民族和 SES 之间的关联。需要进一步的研究来确定这些差异对健康的影响。
