Education and levels of salivary cortisol over the day in US adults.
BACKGROUND
Dysregulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis is hypothesized to be an important pathway linking socioeconomic position and chronic disease.


OBJECTIVE
This paper tests the association between education and the diurnal rhythm of salivary cortisol.


METHODS
Up to eight measures of cortisol (mean of 5.38 per respondent) over 2 days were obtained from 311 respondents, aged 18-70, drawn from the 2001-2002 Chicago Community Adult Health Study. Multi-level models with linear splines were used to estimate waking level, rates of cortisol decline, and area-under-the-curve over the day, by categories of education.


RESULTS
Lower education (0-11 years) was associated with lower waking levels of cortisol, but not the rate of decline of cortisol, resulting in a higher area-under-the-curve for more educated respondents throughout the day.


CONCLUSIONS
This study found evidence of lower cortisol exposure among individuals with less education and thus does not support the hypothesis that less education is associated with chronic over-exposure to cortisol.
Dowd
Jennifer B
JB
School of Public Health, Hunter College, City University of New York (CUNY), 425 E. 25th St. Box 926, New York, NY, 10010, USA, jdowd@hunter.cuny.edu.
Ranjit
Nalini
N
Do
D Phuong
DP
Young
Elizabeth A
EA
House
James S
JS
Kaplan
George A
GA
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002641:Chicago; D002940:Circadian Rhythm; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006854:Hydrocortisone / Q000032:analysis* / Q000502:physiology; D007030:Hypothalamo-Hypophyseal System / Q000503:physiopathology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D055361:Multilevel Analysis; D010913:Pituitary-Adrenal System / Q000503:physiopathology; D012463:Saliva / Q000737:chemistry; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D055815:Young Adult
D006854:Hydrocortisone
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