Recently, a new procedure has been developed to measure cumulative stress hormone reactivity, that is, cortisol, in human hair. Long-term cortisol excretion

can now be accurately measured, up Caspase inhibitor to 6 months back (Dettenborn et al. 2010). Sauvé et al. (2007) reported a significant, but moderate, correlation (r = 0.33, P = 0.04) between 24-h urinary cortisol excretion and hair cortisol concentrations in humans. Only one study reported measuring both long-term (in hair) and short-term (in saliva) cortisol excretion simultaneously in a mixed group of anxious and non-anxious subjects (Steudte et al. 2010). No significant correlations (r = 0.27) were found in that study, perhaps due to the fact that too few saliva measurements were incorporated (2 days, 6 samples/day) or the mean value that was calculated. Davenport et al. (2006) did find a significant correlation between hair and salivary cortisol reactivity in rhesus macaque monkeys, but they point out that this relationship has to be investigated for any new species being tested. To study whether short-term cortisol excretion can predict long-term cortisol excretion, it seemed plausible CT99021 research buy to first study their concurrent relationship. If the concurrent relationship between current salivary cortisol excretion and retrospective

excretion in hair is strong enough, it is necessary to set up a PD0332991 ic50 longitudinal study to investigate the predictive value of short-term cortisol excretion on long-term cortisol excretion in CYTH4 a criterion-related validity study. To gain a further understanding of acute and chronic stress reactivity and their relationship, we set out to investigate these parameters in a working population. The aim was to investigate the concurrent association between short-term and long-term cortisol reactivity. We also investigated how self-reported stress is associated with physiological cortisol reactivity in saliva and hair. Methods Participants were recruited from companies in the Dutch meat-processing industry

as part of a larger workload study. Forty-two production workers were approached from eight organizations that were appointed for this study by a committee of employers and employees of the meat-procession sector to participate in this study. Participants received oral and written instructions about the protocol. Participation was voluntary. After signing the informed consent form, measurements were initiated. Participation consisted of collecting saliva samples on 3 days, that is, two working days and one day off, within 7 days. Each participant received 6 Salivettes (Sarstedt, Etten-Leur, The Netherlands) per day and was instructed to take a sample at prescribed times (9:00 a.m., 11:00 a.m., 1:00 p.m., 3:00 p.m., 5:00 p.m., 8:00 p.m.). The exact time of sample collection was noted, next to possible peculiarities. Peculiarities were, for instance, events that could disturb cortisol production.