The Irish longitudinal Study on Ageing, Department of Medical Gerontology, School of Medicine, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland.
The Irish longitudinal Study on Ageing, Department of Medical Gerontology, School of Medicine, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland; Mercer's Institute for Successful Ageing, St. James's Hospital, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland.
Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2022 Sep;143:105847. doi: 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2022.105847. Epub 2022 Jun 22.
Determining pre-existing biological risk markers of incident depression and other mental health sequelae after exposure to a new stressor would help identify vulnerable individuals and mechanistic pathways. This study investigated primarily whether hair cortisol predicted elevated depressive symptoms in middle-aged and older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic, 6 years later. A secondary aim was to deduce whether any association differed by sex.
We studied 1025 adults aged 50 and older (75% female) as part of The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing. Hair cortisol samples were collected at 2014 (Wave 3) and depressive symptoms were assessed using the 8-item Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale in 2014 (Wave 3), 2016 (Wave 4), 2018 (Wave 5) and again in 2020 as part of TILDA's COVID-19 Study. Hierarchical mixed effects logistic regression models were applied to investigate the association between cortisol levels and clinically significant depressive symptoms before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a full covariate adjusted model there was a significant interaction between cortisol and wave on depressive symptoms (χ2 = 8.5, p = .03). Cortisol was positively and significantly associated with elevated depressive symptoms during the COVID-19 Study (OR =1.3, 95% CI 1.11, 1.56, p = .003), and was associated with an increased likelihood of reporting clinically significant depressive symptoms during first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, when compared with before, OR = 1.4, 95% CI 1.05, 1.9, p = .015. There was no evidence of effect modification by sex.
Higher hair cortisol, assessed 6 years previously, predicted clinically significant depressive symptoms among middle-aged and older adults during (but not before) the pandemic. Findings suggest a biological phenotype which denotes increased susceptibility to the negative impact of environmental stress on psychological health.
确定新应激源暴露后发生抑郁和其他心理健康后果的预先存在的生物学风险标志物，将有助于识别脆弱个体和机制途径。本研究主要探讨了皮质醇是否可预测 COVID-19 大流行期间（6 年后）中年和老年人的抑郁症状加重。次要目的是推断这种关联是否因性别而异。
我们研究了 1025 名年龄在 50 岁及以上的成年人（75%为女性），他们是爱尔兰老龄化纵向研究的一部分。在 2014 年（第 3 波）采集皮质醇样本，使用 8 项中心流行病学研究抑郁量表在 2014 年（第 3 波）、2016 年（第 4 波）、2018 年（第 5 波）以及作为 TILDA 的 COVID-19 研究的一部分在 2020 年再次评估抑郁症状。应用分层混合效应逻辑回归模型，探讨皮质醇水平与 COVID-19 大流行前和期间临床显著抑郁症状之间的关联。
在充分调整协变量的模型中，皮质醇与波之间存在显著的交互作用（χ2=8.5，p=0.03）。皮质醇与 COVID-19 研究期间的抑郁症状呈正相关且具有统计学意义（OR=1.3，95%CI 1.11，1.56，p=0.003），与 COVID-19 大流行的第一年相比，报告有临床意义的抑郁症状的可能性增加，OR=1.4，95%CI 1.05，1.9，p=0.015。未发现性别对其有影响。
皮质醇水平升高（6 年前评估）可预测中年和老年人在大流行期间（而非之前）出现临床显著的抑郁症状。研究结果表明，一种生物学表型可预测个体对环境应激对心理健康的负面影响的易感性增加。
