TY - JOUR
T1 - Challenges of measuring diurnal cortisol concentrations in a large population-based field study
AU - Halpern, Carolyn Tucker
AU - Whitsel, Eric A.
AU - Wagner, Brandon
AU - Harris, Kathleen Mullan
N1 - Funding Information:
This research uses data from Add Health, a program project directed by Kathleen Mullan Harris and designed by J. Richard Udry, Peter S. Bearman, and Kathleen Mullan Harris at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and funded by grant P01-HD31921 from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) , with cooperative funding from 23 other federal agencies and foundations. Special acknowledgment is due Ronald R. Rindfuss and Barbara Entwisle for assistance in the original design. Information on how to obtain the Add Health data files is available on the Add Health website ( http://www.cpc.unc.edu/addhealth ).
PY - 2012/4
Y1 - 2012/4
N2 - Objectives: Longitudinal examinations of associations between daily stress, diurnal cortisol concentrations, and physiological parameters in population-based studies are needed. This study evaluates issues related to consent, collection, and protocol adherence for a low-burden saliva collection protocol. Methods: In the 2007 pretest (n=193) for Wave IV of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) a three-sample, one-day, unsupervised saliva collection protocol was pilot tested. Embedded experiments allowed for examination of adherence and effects of monetary incentives. Results: Although most (97%) study participants consented to collection, only about 80% actually mailed back samples. Use of a time-stamping TrackCap allowed comparison of self-reported and stamp-recorded collection times. Of returned samples, self-report of collection time was missing for about a quarter, and only about one in three respondents (of those for whom adherence was calculable) fully adhered to the collection protocol, indicating significant potential for bias. Consent, return, and protocol adherence were unrelated to key sociodemographic characteristics, and did not improve with higher monetary incentives or knowledge of being monitored. Conclusions: Despite the relatively low-burden collection protocol and use of multiple strategies thought to improve collection and protocol adherence, response and adherence were poor, leading to a decision to drop cortisol measurement from the Wave IV Add Health protocol. Large field studies should carefully evaluate the feasibility of collection and protocol adherence for unsupervised collection protocols before implementing costly, and potentially unusable, biological measurements.
AB - Objectives: Longitudinal examinations of associations between daily stress, diurnal cortisol concentrations, and physiological parameters in population-based studies are needed. This study evaluates issues related to consent, collection, and protocol adherence for a low-burden saliva collection protocol. Methods: In the 2007 pretest (n=193) for Wave IV of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) a three-sample, one-day, unsupervised saliva collection protocol was pilot tested. Embedded experiments allowed for examination of adherence and effects of monetary incentives. Results: Although most (97%) study participants consented to collection, only about 80% actually mailed back samples. Use of a time-stamping TrackCap allowed comparison of self-reported and stamp-recorded collection times. Of returned samples, self-report of collection time was missing for about a quarter, and only about one in three respondents (of those for whom adherence was calculable) fully adhered to the collection protocol, indicating significant potential for bias. Consent, return, and protocol adherence were unrelated to key sociodemographic characteristics, and did not improve with higher monetary incentives or knowledge of being monitored. Conclusions: Despite the relatively low-burden collection protocol and use of multiple strategies thought to improve collection and protocol adherence, response and adherence were poor, leading to a decision to drop cortisol measurement from the Wave IV Add Health protocol. Large field studies should carefully evaluate the feasibility of collection and protocol adherence for unsupervised collection protocols before implementing costly, and potentially unusable, biological measurements.
KW - Consent
KW - Cortisol
KW - Population-based
KW - Protocol adherence
KW - USA
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84857191191&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2011.07.019
DO - 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2011.07.019
M3 - Article
C2 - 21862225
AN - SCOPUS:84857191191
SN - 0306-4530
VL - 37
SP - 499
EP - 508
JO - Psychoneuroendocrinology
JF - Psychoneuroendocrinology
IS - 4
ER -