Is there an association between work stress and diurnal cortisol patterns? Findings from the Whitehall II study.
cross_sectional · Level IV
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- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 24312516.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0081020 and PMC identifier PMC3085201.
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Abstract
OBJECTIVE: The evidence on whether there is work stress related dysregulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis is equivocal. This study assessed the relation between work stress and diurnal cortisol rhythm in a large-scale occupational cohort, the Whitehall II study. METHODS: Work stress was assessed in two ways, using the job-demand-control (JDC) and the effort-reward-imbalance (ERI) models. Salivary cortisol samples were collected six times over a normal day in 2002-2004. The cortisol awakening response (CAR) and diurnal cortisol decline (slope) were calculated. RESULTS: In this large occupational cohort (N = 2,126, mean age 57.1), modest differences in cortisol patterns were found for ERI models only, showing lower reward (β = -0.001, P-value = 0.04) and higher ERI (β = 0.002, P-value = 0.05) were related to a flatter slope in cortisol across the day. Meanwhile, moderate gender interactions were observed regarding CAR and JDC model. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that the associations of work stress with cortisol are modest, with associations apparent for ERI model rather than JDC model.