Elevated hair cortisol levels in chronically stressed dementia caregivers

Hair cortisol concentrations (HCC) are assumed to reflect integrated long-term cortisol levels and have been proposed as a promising endocrine marker of chronic psychological stress. The current study examined HCC in relation to caregiving burden, a well-established naturalistic model of chronic stress in humans. HCC and relevant psychosocial data were examined in 20 caregivers of relatives with dementia and 20 non-caregiver controls matched for age and sex. Results revealed elevated HCC in dementia caregivers compared to non-caregiver controls (F(1,38) = 4.4, p = .04, ηp2=.10). Further, within caregivers, a trend for a positive association of HCC with self-reported caregiving burden (r = .43, p = .058) and a positive association with depressiveness (r = .48, p = .045) were observed. No other associations between HCC and subjective measures were seen. These findings concur with the notion that HCC sensitively capture endocrine aberrations in stress-exposed groups.