Hair-Normalized Cortisol Waking Response as a Novel Biomarker of Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal Axis Activity following Acute Trauma: A Proof-of-Concept Study with Pilot Results
Table 2
Simple bivariate associations between key independent variables and the two indicators of HPA axis activity measured in the acute stage of injury.
Categorical
Mean daily cortisol (ng/mL)
Cortisol waking response (ng/mL)
Hair-normalized mean daily cortisol
Hair-normalized cortisol waking response
Mean (SD)
Mean (SD)
Mean (SD)
Mean (SD)
Sex
Male ()
17.78 (8.28)
−1.95 (1.98)
0.10 (0.03)
−0.01 (0.01)
Female ()
19.58 (8.07)
3.92 (3.71)*
0.09 (0.01)
0.03 (0.04)
Type of injury
WAD ()
16.46 (8.01)
2.14 (3.80)
0.08 (0.02)
0.01 (0.03)
DRF ()
22.90 (6.18)
2.19 (5.49)
0.11 (0.02)
0.03 (0.05)
Continuous
Mean daily cortisol (ng/mL)
Cortisol waking response (ng/mL)
Hair-normalized mean daily cortisol
Hair-normalized cortisol waking response
()
()
()
()
Age
0.03 (0.93)
−0.17 (0.65)
0.20 (0.61)
0.10 (0.78)
NRS
0.26 (0.47)
0.28 (0.44)
0.41 (0.28)
0.36 (0.31)
%Disability
0.24 (0.50)
0.08 (0.84)
0.53 (0.15)
0.58 (0.08)
PCS
0.29 (0.41)
0.77 (<0.01)**
−0.24 (0.54)
0.93 (<0.01)**
Difference between male and female is significant at the level. **Correlation is significant at the level. WAD: whiplash associated disorder, DRF: distal radius fracture, NRS: numeric rating scale for pain intensity, PCS: pain catastrophizing scale.
