Table 1.

Baseline characteristics of both, the stress cohort and the age- and sex-matched control group.

	Stress cohort	Control cohort	Effect size	p	pBH
Age	49 (39–53)	43 (32–52)	0.11	0.382	n.s.
Female sex	29 (73%)	20 (77%)	−0.049	0.688	n.s.
Smoker	9 (23%)	2 (8%)	0.194	0.115	n.s.
BMI [kg/m²]	26.1 (22.5–30.8)	22.7 (21.4–24.6)	0.33	0.007	<0.05
CGI-S	3 (3–4)	1 (1–1)	0.84	<0.001	<0.001
Questionnaires
Burnout-risk screening	66.7 (58.0–73.4)	42.5 (40.8–47.0)	0.81	<0.001	<0.001
HADS anxiety	11.5 (8.3–14.0)	2.5 (2.0–4.0)	0.79	<0.001	<0.001
HADS depression	9.0 (6.3–14.8)	3.0 (1.0–4.0)	0.76	<0.001	<0.001
Blood markers
HCYS [µmol/l]	11.0 (10.0–13.7)	12.1 (10.4–14.2)	0.17	0.169	n.s.
IL6 [pg/ml]	2.5 (0.9–3.4)	1.5 (0.8–2.6)	0.24	0.054	n.s.
MPO [ng/ml]	158 (108–203)	122 (100–189)	0.15	0.215	n.s.
Saliva cortisol day profile
Awakening [µg/dl]	0.63 (0.41–0.75)	0.38 (0.26–0.46)	0.46	<0.001	<0.001
Awakening + 15′[µg/dl]	0.68 (0.43–0.80)	0.48 (0.31–0.62)	0.34	0.005	<0.05
Awakening + 30′ [µg/dl]	0.71 (0.47–0.93)	0.50 (0.42–0.64)	0.31	0.012	<0.05
Awakening + 45′ [µg/dl]	0.67 (0.50–0.75)	0.42 (0.27–0.66)	0.32	0.009	<0.05
AUCg [µg × h/dl]	0.50 (0.37–0.62)	0.35 (0.26–0.46)	0.39	0.002	<0.01
AUCi [µg × h/dl]	0.04 (−0.06–0.14)	0.06 (0.02–0.16)	0.11	0.379	n.s.
midday [µg/dl]	0.27 (0.18–0.35)	0.14 (0.06–0.20)	0.56	<0.001	<0.001
nadir [µg/dl]	0.18 (0.13–0.27)	0.05 (0.05–0.05)	0.65	<0.001	<0.001

Categorical data was compared by Pearson’s χ² tests, continuous data was compared by Mann-Whitney U tests. Effect sizes for Mann-Whitney U tests are given as r, for Pearson’s χ² tests as φ. Adjusted p-values (according to Benjamini and Hochberg) below 0.05 were considered statistical significant.

CGI-S, Clinical Global Impression Scale – Severity; HCYS, homocysteine; IL6, interleukin 6; MPO, plasma myeloperoxidase; AUC_g, area under the curve with respect to ground; AUC_i, cortisol awakening response – area under the curve with respect to increase; PSS, psychosocial screening³⁴; HADS, Hospital anxiety and depression scale⁶¹.