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Hair cortisol concentration is unaffected by basic military training, but related to sociodemographic and environmental factors.
Journal article

Hair cortisol concentration is unaffected by basic military training, but related to sociodemographic and environmental factors.

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  • 2014-10-08
Published in:
  • Stress (Amsterdam, Netherlands). - 2015
Air humidity
air temperature
chronic stress
education
hair cortisol
hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenocortical axis
meteorological data
sweating
Biomarkers
Chronic Disease
Educational Status
Hair
Humans
Hydrocortisone
Job Description
Male
Military Medicine
Military Personnel
Occupational Health
Perception
Physical Conditioning, Human
Risk Factors
Stress, Psychological
Switzerland
Time Factors
Weather
Young Adult
English The analysis of hair cortisol concentrations (HCC) is a promising new biomarker for retrospective measurement of chronic stress. The effect of basic military training (BMT) on chronic stress has not yet been reported. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of 10-week BMT on HCC, while further exploring the role of known and novel covariates. Young healthy male recruits of the Swiss Army participated twice, 10 weeks apart, in data collection (1st examination: n = 177; 2nd examination: n = 105). On two occasions, we assessed HCC, perceived stress and different candidate variables that may affect HCC (e.g. socioeconomic status, meteorological data). Military training increased perceived stress from the first to the second examination, but did not affect HCC. In line with this, there was no correlation between HCC and perceived stress ratings. This could be interpreted as a missing influence of mainly physical stress (e.g. exercise) on HCC. In contrast, significant correlations were found between HCC and ambient temperature, humidity and education. Future studies should control for meteorological data and educational status when examining HCC.
Language
  • English
Open access status
closed
Identifiers
Persistent URL
https://sonar.ch/global/documents/156823
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