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Collecting Saliva and Measuring Salivary Cortisol and Alpha-amylase in Frail Community Residing Older Adults via Family Caregivers
Published on: December 18, 2013
Salivary cortisol and social status among Dominican men
1Department of Anthropology, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia 30322, USA.
Abstract:
Studies of nonhuman primates indicate that social subordinance associates with chronic elevated cortisol, but this finding has not been replicated among humans. This topic was examined in a study of 31 healthy adult male Dominican villagers ages 17 to 49 years. Each subject's mean cortisol level was calculated using multiple time-standardized salivary cortisol samples (minimum = 6, mean = 14. 8 samples per subject) determined by radioimmunoassay. Semistructured ethnographic interviews were used to collect several measures of social status. Data were analyzed with a backward stepwise multivariate linear regression model. Partial regression statistics revealed four significant associations with cortisol: (i) men with reputations for illicit social behavior had higher cortisol; (ii) men who reported more frequent distressed mood had higher cortisol; (iii) men rated as less trustworthy, agreeable, influential, and helpful by their peers had higher cortisol; and (iv) men whose fathers were absent as a childhood caretaker had higher cortisol. No associations were found between cortisol and (a) a composite of educational attainment, income, and material wealth; (b) frequency of tobacco consumption; (c) frequency of perceived social stressors; or (d) a composite of number of children and dependents.
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