Age and Hair Cortisol Levels as Predictors of SARS-CoV-2 Infection

Nancy Fiedler (), Pamela Ohman-Strickland, Jialin Doris Shen, Kathleen Black, Daniel B. Horton, Reynold Panettieri, Martin J. Blaser, Jeffrey Carson, Kestutis Bendinskas, Hana Cheng and Emily S. Barrett
Additional contact information
Nancy Fiedler: Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute, Rutgers School of Public Health, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA
Pamela Ohman-Strickland: Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute, Rutgers School of Public Health, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA
Jialin Doris Shen: Pfizer Inc., 400 Crossing Blvd, Bridgewater, NJ 08807, USA
Kathleen Black: Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute, Rutgers School of Public Health, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA
Daniel B. Horton: Department of Pediatrics, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Institute for Health, Healthcare Policy, and Aging Research, Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences, 112 Paterson St., New Brunswick, NJ 08901, USA
Reynold Panettieri: Rutgers Institute for Translational Medicine and Science, New Brunswick, NJ 08901, USA
Martin J. Blaser: Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Center for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine, Rutgers University, 679 Hoes Lane West, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA
Jeffrey Carson: Department of Medicine, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, 1 Robert Wood Johnson Place, New Brunswick, NJ 08901, USA
Kestutis Bendinskas: Chemistry Department, State University of New York at Oswego, 30 Centennial Drive, Oswego, NY 13126, USA
Hana Cheng: Chemistry Department, State University of New York at Oswego, 30 Centennial Drive, Oswego, NY 13126, USA
Emily S. Barrett: Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute, Rutgers School of Public Health, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA

IJERPH, 2024, vol. 21, issue 9, 1-12

Abstract: Chronic psychosocial stress is known to adversely impact immune function. During the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, occupational stress among workers in healthcare was at an unprecedented level due to risks of infection and work demands. We performed a nested case–control study to investigate the associations between chronic stress and the risks of contracting SARS-CoV-2. We collected 3 cm of hair from employees at an academic medical center who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 (N = 49) and controls who tested negative (N = 49), matched for age, race, and sex. The diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 was based on polymerase chain reaction or antibody tests. As a proxy for chronic stress, we segmented hair into 1 cm sections each representing one month and measured cortisol levels using a cortisol enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. For cases, we used cortisol concentrations measured in hair segments from the month prior to a positive SARS-CoV-2 test, and for controls, we used time-matched hair segments. We fitted conditional logistic regression models adjusted for sex, age, race, body mass index, and healthcare worker status, and stratified models by older vs. younger age (cutoff = 41 years). African Americans had higher hair cortisol levels relative to participants of other races and ethnicities. In adjusted models, higher hair cortisol concentrations were associated with an increased odds of infection with SARS-CoV-2 (OR = 1.84; CI: 1.10–3.07) among older, but not younger, participants. The results suggest that psychosocial stress may be a risk factor for SARS-CoV-2 infection; stress management may be an important part of a comprehensive approach to protect against SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Keywords: SARS-CoV-2; hair cortisol; chronic stress; COVID-19; health care (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/21/9/1166/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/21/9/1166/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:21:y:2024:i:9:p:1166-:d:1469569

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().