title: Incorporating salivary biomarkers into nursing research: an overview and review of best practices.
abstract: Analytes and biomarkers present in saliva may provide insight into individual differences in environmental chemical exposures, variation in reproductive hormones, therapeutic and illegal substance use, changes in stress-related physiology, and the immunologic footprints of infectious disease. The wealth of information provided by salivary analytes has the potential to enrich biobehavioral nursing research by enabling researchers to measure these individual differences in the clinic as well as in patients' and participants' everyday social worlds. In this article, the authors provide a roadmap for researchers new to this area who would like to learn more about integrating salivary biospecimens into the next generation of health research. In addition, the authors highlight best practices and strategies to avoid common pitfalls for researchers already engaged in this field.
authors.affiliation: Center for Interdisciplinary Salivary Bioscience Research, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA. dgrange2@jhu.edu
authors.forename: Douglas A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Granger
authors.forename: Sara B
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.forename: Sarah L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Szanton
authors.forename: Dorothée
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Out
authors.forename: Lynette Lau
authors.initials: LL
authors.lastname: Schumann
mesh_terms: D019985:Benchmarking; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000032:analysis*; D006801:Humans; D015399:Nursing Research; D012463:Saliva / Q000737:chemistry*; D013048:Specimen Handling
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers