Department of Psychology, Technische Universität, Dresden, Germany.
Stress. 2012 Nov;15(6):578-88. doi: 10.3109/10253890.2012.654479. Epub 2012 Feb 23.
To inform the future use of hair cortisol measurement, we have investigated influences of potential confounding variables (natural hair colour, frequency of hair washes, age, sex, oral contraceptive (OC) use and smoking status) on hair cortisol levels. The main study sample comprised 360 participants (172 women) covering a wide range of ages (1-91 years; mean = 25.95). In addition, to more closely examine influences of natural hair colour and young age on hair cortisol levels, two additional samples comprising 69 participants with natural blond or dark brown hair (hair colour sample) as well as 28 young children and 34 adults (young age sample) were recruited. Results revealed a lack of an effect for natural hair colour, OC use, and smoking status on hair cortisol levels (all p's >0.10). No influence of frequency of hair washes was seen for proximal hair segments (p = 0.335) but for the third hair segment indicating lower cortisol content (p = 0.008). We found elevated hair cortisol levels in young children and older adults (p < 0.001). Finally, men showed higher hair cortisol levels than women (p = 0.002). The present data indicate that hair cortisol measurement provides a useful tool in stress-related psychobiological research when applied with the consideration of possible confounders including age and sex.
为了为今后使用头发皮质醇测量提供信息，我们研究了潜在混杂变量（自然头发颜色、洗发频率、年龄、性别、口服避孕药（OC）使用情况和吸烟状况）对头发皮质醇水平的影响。主要研究样本包括 360 名参与者（172 名女性），年龄跨度较大（1-91 岁；平均值=25.95）。此外，为了更仔细地研究自然头发颜色和年龄对头发皮质醇水平的影响，我们还招募了另外两个样本，包括 69 名自然金发或深棕色头发的参与者（头发颜色样本）以及 28 名幼儿和 34 名成年人（年轻年龄样本）。结果显示，自然头发颜色、OC 使用情况和吸烟状况对头发皮质醇水平没有影响（所有 p 值均大于 0.10）。洗发频率对近端头发段没有影响（p=0.335），但对第三段头发（指示皮质醇含量较低）有影响（p=0.008）。我们发现幼儿和老年人的头发皮质醇水平较高（p<0.001）。最后，男性的头发皮质醇水平高于女性（p=0.002）。本研究数据表明，当考虑到包括年龄和性别在内的可能混杂因素时，头发皮质醇测量为应激相关心理生物学研究提供了一种有用的工具。
