Stability of the diurnal cortisol profile in children and adolescents
Section snippets
Participants
Youth aged 9–18 years were recruited to take part in the Healthy Heart Project, a longitudinal study examining early cardiovascular risk factors, at Concordia University, Montreal, QC. Flyers, postcards, and bookmarks were distributed throughout the community and in primary and secondary schools approved by the Montreal English School Board. Children with serious psychopathology or medication use known to interfere with cardiovascular functioning were excluded. This study was approved by the
Results
Participants (N = 233) included children and adolescents aged 9–18 years (M = 12.40 years, SD = 1.82). About half of the sample was female (n = 103; 44.2%) and the majority of participants were of normal body weight (<85th BMI percentile: n = 152; 65%). The majority of parents had a university education (M = 15.88 years, SD = 3.45) and a yearly household income of $73,552 CAN (SD = $51,780). The mean wake time was 7:33 am (SD = 1.4 h) and participants slept on average for 9 h (SD = 1.5 h). The majority of samples were
Discussion
Cortisol is used extensively as a marker of HPA-axis activity in children and adolescents within psychoneuroendocrinology research. Despite its frequent use, the stability of the diurnal cortisol profile has not been established in children and adolescents. In the current investigation, the stability of cortisol and the influence of covariates was tested. Specific cortisol values included aggregate (AUCAG, AUCI, slopeawake regression, slopeawake to last, slopemax regression, slopemax to last, AUCTG)
Role of funding source
The funding source had no role in the design, analysis or presentation of this study.
Conflict of interest statement
All authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Acknowledgements
We thank the participants and their families of the Healthy Heart Project, the teachers and principals of the Montreal English School Board, and the research assistants and study coordinators of the Pediatric Public Health Psychology Laboratory at Concordia University. Special thanks to Natasha Hunt and Sabrina Giovanniello for their continued dedication. We also thank John Brand for generating the figure, as well as Sonia Lupien, Mark Ellenbogen, and Wayne Brake for their insightful comments
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