Department of Psychology, University of Siegen, 57076 Siegen, Germany.
Department of Neuropsychology, Albert-Ludwigs-University Freiburg, 79085 Freiburg, Germany.
Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2023 Jun;152:106086. doi: 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2023.106086. Epub 2023 Mar 16.
Hair cortisol concentrations (HCC) are commonly used to capture long-term cumulative cortisol secretion in stress research. However, data on associations between HCC and subjective stress measures have been inconsistent. This may partly be due to bias introduced by smaller-sized academic samples. Here, we investigate associations between HCC and (work-) stress-related measures in a large occupational, predominantly male, sample.
Demographic, anthropometric, and self-reported data were collected as part of an occupational health assessment for employees of an airplane manufacturing company (N = 1258). Hair samples (3 cm) were obtained and glucocorticoid concentrations (HCC and hair cortisone, HairE) were analyzed using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry.
HCC and HairE were unrelated to self-report measures of perceived stress, work-related stress (effort-reward imbalance, overcommitment), and other stress-related constructs. Group-based analyses concerning associations with job strain revealed a small effect of individuals with high job strain (n = 281) exhibiting higher HCC than the remaining sample (n = 811).
Our data replicate previous findings of no consistent associations between hair glucocorticoids and subjective stress-related questionnaire data, besides evidence for elevated HCC in a high job strain group. Further research addressing open methodological questions regarding HCC by means of advanced stress assessment methods is needed.
头发皮质醇浓度 (HCC) 常用于应激研究中捕捉长期累积的皮质醇分泌。然而，HCC 与主观应激测量之间的关联数据一直不一致。这可能部分归因于学术样本规模较小引入的偏差。在这里，我们在一个大型职业性、以男性为主的样本中调查 HCC 与（工作）应激相关测量之间的关联。
作为飞机制造公司员工职业健康评估的一部分，收集了人口统计学、人体测量学和自我报告的数据（N=1258）。采集 3cm 的头发样本，并使用液相色谱-串联质谱法分析糖皮质激素浓度（HCC 和头发皮质酮，HairE）。
HCC 和 HairE 与自我报告的感知压力、与工作相关的压力（努力-回报失衡、过度投入）以及其他应激相关结构无关。关于与工作压力相关的分组分析表明，高工作压力个体（n=281）的 HCC 高于其余样本（n=811），具有较小的影响。
我们的数据复制了先前的发现，即头发皮质醇与主观应激相关问卷数据之间没有一致的关联，除了在高工作压力组中发现 HCC 升高的证据。需要通过先进的应激评估方法进一步研究解决 HCC 中存在的开放方法学问题。
