Distribution characteristics of salivary cortisol measurements in a healthy young male population

Journal of Physiological Anthropology

Yoshifumi Miyazaki¹  Hiromitsu Kobayashi¹ 

[1] Center for Environment, Health and Field Sciences, Chiba University, Chiba, Japan

关键词: floor-effect;    kurtosis;    skewness;    distribution;    salivary cortisol;   

Others  :  1224089
DOI  :  10.1186/s40101-015-0068-0

 received in 2015-04-10, accepted in 2015-07-29,  发布年份 2015

【 摘 要 】

Background

Salivary cortisol has been used in various fields of science as a non-invasive biomarker of stress levels. This study offers the normative reference values of cortisol measurement for healthy young males.

Findings

Salivary cortisol levels were measured in 267 healthy young males (age: 21.7 ± 1.5 years) in the early morning on two consecutive days and were analyzed by radioimmunoassay. Frequency distribution analysis was conducted with mean values of the measurements taken on the 2 days. The mean salivary cortisol level was 20.39 ± 7.74 nmol/l (median: 19.31 nmol/l). The skewness and kurtosis of the distribution of the raw data were 0.72 and 0.68, respectively. They were both improved by a square root transformation but not by a logarithmic transformation.

Conclusions

The skewness of the distribution for salivary cortisol measured in the early morning is considerably smaller than that previously reported from afternoon measurements. A “floor effect” may be an explanation for the difference in the distribution characteristics of salivary cortisol.

【 授权许可】

   
2015 Kobayashi and Miyazaki.

【 图 表 】

Fig. 1.

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