Is There an Association between Work Stress and Diurnal Cortisol Patterns? Findings from the Whitehall II Study

Jing Liao, Eric J Brunner and Meena Kumari

PLOS ONE, 2013, vol. 8, issue 12, 1-8

Abstract: Objective: The evidence on whether there is work stress related dysregulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis is equivocal. This study assessed the relation between work stress and diurnal cortisol rhythm in a large-scale occupational cohort, the Whitehall II study. Methods: Work stress was assessed in two ways, using the job-demand-control (JDC) and the effort-reward-imbalance (ERI) models. Salivary cortisol samples were collected six times over a normal day in 2002–2004. The cortisol awakening response (CAR) and diurnal cortisol decline (slope) were calculated. Results: In this large occupational cohort (N = 2,126, mean age 57.1), modest differences in cortisol patterns were found for ERI models only, showing lower reward (β = −0.001, P-value = 0.04) and higher ERI (β = 0.002, P-value = 0.05) were related to a flatter slope in cortisol across the day. Meanwhile, moderate gender interactions were observed regarding CAR and JDC model. Conclusions: We conclude that the associations of work stress with cortisol are modest, with associations apparent for ERI model rather than JDC model.

Date: 2013
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pone00:0081020

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0081020

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