Table 3.
Correlations between baseline cortisol and self-report measures in the Cortisol Study, Nuevo Amanecer-II Randomized Controlled Trial, 2016–2018 (N = 76).
| Stress (PSS-10) | Anxiety (BSI) | Depression (PHQ-8) | Health Distress | CAR slope | Cortisol AUCg | HCC mg/mL | ≥40% change in CAR | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Self-report measures | ||||||||
| Stress (PSS-10) | 1.00 | |||||||
| Anxiety (BSI) | 0.69 <0.0001 |
1.00 | ||||||
| Depression (PHQ-8) | 0.69 <0.0001 |
0.77 <0.0001 |
1.00 | |||||
| Health Distress | 0.72 <0.0001 |
0.64 <0.0001 |
0.71 <0.0001 |
1.00 | ||||
| Cortisol measuresa | ||||||||
| CAR slopeb | −0.04 0.57 |
−0.07 0.33 |
−0.10 0.19 |
−0.04 0.62 |
1.00 | |||
| Cortisol AUCgb, thousands | −0.22 0.005 |
−0.23 0.003 |
−0.22 0.004 |
−0.21 0.006 |
0.27 0.0004 |
1.00 | ||
| HCC, mg/mLb,c | −0.08 0.34 |
−0.04 0.69 |
−0.04 0.65 |
−0.17 0.05 |
−0.12 0.22 |
0.14 0.17 |
1.00 | |
| ≥40% change in CAR | 0.10 0.19 |
0.03 0.68 |
−0.02 0.82 |
0.13 0.08 |
0.48 <0.0001 |
0.03 0.68 |
−0.08 0.42 |
1.00 |
Abbreviations: AUCg, area under the curve with respect to ground; HCC, hair cortisol concentration.
a
Participants were able to contribute up to 3 days’ worth of cortisol samples across 3 days; similar estimates were obtained when correlation was estimated using mixed effect models and accounting for the repeated measures [43].
b
All cortisol measures were log-transformed before assessing correlation.
c
Only 49 participants provided hair samples (intervention group: 22; control group: 27); due to small sample size repeated measures among the other cortisol measures could not be accounted for.