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Abstract
The purpose of this investigation was to examine: (1) relations between serum and
saliva cortisol in adolescents in pregnancy and early postpartum and (2) short-term
consistency of serum and saliva cortisol across three samples, 20 minutes apart, as
well as the long-term consistency from pregnancy to early postpartum.
Pregnant adolescents (n = 40), ages 14 to 19years, were enrolled in this study. Subjects were seen at 20
weeks gestation or earlier (T1), 34–36 weeks gestation (T2), and 2–3 weeks postpartum
(T3). Blood samples were drawn at T1 and T3, at 0, 20, and 40 minutes. Saliva samples
were collected across the same 40-minute period at T1, T2, and T3. Spearman rho (rs) correlation coefficients between serum and saliva ranged from 0.72 to 0.77 (T1),
and 0.42 to 0.60 (T3) (p ≤ 0.05). Short-term consistency between serum cortisol samples
was 0.86–0.97 at T1 and 0.60–0.82 at T3. Short-term consistency for saliva cortisol
samples was 0.70–0.96 at T1, 0.91–0.95 at T2, and 0.64–0.89 at T3. Long-term consistency
(T1 to T3) for serum and saliva cortisol was low. Individual differences as well as
dramatic changes in the endocrine environment in pregnancy and the early postpartum
period may explain the more moderate serum-saliva correlations in the postportum period.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Received in revised form:
May 12,
1993
Received:
October 13,
1992
Footnotes
☆The research was supported in part by grants from the National Center for Nursing Research, National Research Service Award (F31 NRO5965) to the first author, and the National Association for Pediatric Nurse Associates and Practitioners to both authors.
Identification
Copyright
© 1993 Published by Elsevier Inc.