Relative sensitivity of cortisol indices to psychosocial and physical health factors

Abstract

Objective Regulation of cortisol under resting conditions is widely used to assess physical and psychological status, but due to the diversity of possible assessments (e.g., cumulative levels; diurnal patterns), considering one or a few at a time hampers understanding and interpretation. Moreover, most studies of cortisol regulation focus on negatively-valanced experiences. This study examined the inter-correlations among cortisol indices and their relative contribution to the explained variance in diverse psychosocial and health factors, including positive functioning. Methods Data are from midlife and older adults (N = 513; 47.2% male). Cortisol was assessed in urine (overnight) and saliva (at rest and over 4 consecutive days). Positive and negative psychosocial and health factors were assessed by self-report. In addition to examining associations among cortisol indices, relative weight analysis was used to determine which indices were most robustly linked to specific psychosocial factors. Results Inter-correlations among indices were weak-to-moderate, suggesting that they measure different aspects of hypothalamic-pituitary-axis activity. Overall variance in psychosocial and health factors ( R 2 ) explained by the cortisol indices ranged from 0.01 to 0.07. Of this explained variance, relative weight analysis showed that waking cortisol contributed most to the variance in hedonic well-being (32.1%–38.2%), bedtime cortisol to depression-related factors (32.1%–46.9%), the cortisol awakening response to eudaimonic well-being (35.8%–50.5%), cortisol slope to perceived stress (29.2%), and urinary cortisol to physical factors (38.5% and 62.7%). Conclusions Positive and negative factors were related to largely non-overlapping cortisol indices. This study illuminates nuanced associations among cortisol indices and diverse aspects of mental and physical health, facilitating thoughtful examination of the complex role of hypothalamic-pituitary-axis activity in health.

Challenges to Identity Integration Indirectly Link Experiences of Heterosexist and Racist Discrimination to Lower Waking Salivary Cortisol in Sexually Diverse Latinx Emerging Adults

“…Thus, challenges to identity integration may be a form of internalized social distress that compromises adaptive adrenocortical regulation. Lower cortisol intercepts, indicative of less circulating cortisol at waking, have been associated with diminished psychological health (Rector et al, 2019) and are considered an index of dysregulated adrenocortical functioning associated with exposure to severe and pervasive stress (Adam and Kumari, 2009;Vargas and Lopez-Duran, 2014). This interpretation suggests that experiences at the intersections of heterosexist and racist discrimination may influence sexually diverse Latinx emerging adults to keep their sexual and ethnic/racial marginalized social group identities separate from each other, and that this experience of one's self living between divided social worlds (Morales, 1989) carries a physical, biological toll.…”

“…High waking cortisol levels, or higher cortisol intercepts, have been associated with more life satisfaction and self-acceptance, and with less anxious arousal, anticipatory stress, and depression (Vargas and Lopez-Duran, 2014;Rector et al, 2019). Exposure to pervasive stress has been associated with lower cortisol intercepts (Adam and Kumari, 2009).…”

“…Given log 10 -transformed values, higher diurnal cortisol intercepts were indexed by less negative or more positive coefficients. Lower diurnal cortisol intercepts, indexed by more negative coefficients, were interpreted as representing a hypoactive HPA axis associated with decreased well-being (Rector et al, 2019) and greater stress (Vargas and Lopez-Duran, 2014). Diurnal cortisol slopes with more negative values (more steeply decreasing) were interpreted as representing more adaptive regulation of daily cortisol secretion (greater decreases in cortisol production from waking to bedtime), whereas flatter slopes with smaller negative values, or with zero or positive values, reflected less adaptive HPA axis functioning (Juster et al, 2010;Gunnar and Adam, 2012).…”

Psychological well-being as part of the public health debate? Insight into dimensions, interventions, and policy

“…Although there is an inverse correlation between self-reported positive and negative psychological states, most coefficients vary from small-to-moderate, but are generally not strong in magnitude [14–16]. Psychological distress and well-being also have distinct biological correlates, further supporting the idea that they are separate rather than mirrored constructs [15, 17–19]. Accordingly, a successful psychotherapeutic or pharmacological treatment of anxiety symptoms will decrease symptoms of psychological distress but will not necessarily translate into a greater sense of purpose in life, autonomy, or optimism.…”

Sex Differences in the Relationship Between Child Maltreatment, Recent Bereavement, and Average Heart Rate

“…More specifically, various forms of maltreatment-physical abuse, sexual abuse, and emotional neglect-have been directly linked with reductions in the quality of life and life expectancy of adult survivors (Corso, Edwards, Fang, & Mercy, 2008). In part, this relationship may be explained by biochemical changes associated with prolonged exposure to stress and adversity (i.e., elevated cortisol levels; Aardal-Eriksson, Eriksson, & Thorell, 2001;Pan, Wang, Wu, Wu Wen, & Liu, 2018;Rector, Tay, Wiese, & Friedman, 2019;Weems & Carrion, 2007). Alternative models suggest that early experiences of maltreatment or trauma may result in behavioral changes (e.g., fitness or nutrition) that lead to poorer health outcomes for adults with histories of child maltreatment (Doom, Mason, Suglia, & Clark, 2017).…”