Hair cortisol in relation to job stress and depressive symptoms

<span class="paragraphSection"><div class="boxTitle">Abstract</div><div class="boxTitle">Background</div>Measurement of hair cortisol concentration (HCC) may be used as a biomarker for chronic stress. However, the association between stress and HCC has rarely been investigated in a working population.<div class="boxTitle">Aims</div>To explore associations between (i) HCC and various stress measures and (ii) HCC and symptoms of depression in Belgian workers.<div class="boxTitle">Methods</div>Hair samples were collected from workers in two production companies and cortisol content was determined by liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry. Participants completed a questionnaire including socio-demographics, health behaviours and standardized measures for assessing stress.<div class="boxTitle">Results</div>After excluding those workers suffering from a psychiatric or neuroendocrine disease and those treated with glucocorticoids, there were a total of 102 workers with both questionnaire, cortisol results and anthropometric measures. Median HCC was 5.73 pg/mg hair (interquartile range = 4.52–9.06). No significant associations were found between cortisol and the standardized measures related to several work psychosocial risk factors. A significantly lower mean HCC was found in shift workers compared with dayworkers, adjusted for age. Additionally, a significant higher mean HCC was found in workers with symptoms of depression compared with those without symptoms of depression, after adjustment for age.<div class="boxTitle">Conclusions</div>HCC showed a limited applicability as a biomarker for job stress in this sample, although the results suggest this method may be a suitable marker for detecting early symptoms of depression. Further research is needed to investigate the applicability of HCC in the working environment and within job stress research.</span>

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