SALIVARY CORTISOL AND DAILY EVENTS IN NURSING-HOME RESIDENTS

The authors evaluated the feasibility of using salivary cortisol as a noninvasive measure of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA)-axis respo nses to stressful events of daily living in elderly nursing home resid ents. Ten medically stable male nursing home residents (age 81.7 +/- 1 2-42) gave salivary samples before and after an assisted bath, and at corresponding time on the subsequent (control) day. Regression models, with measures of salivary cortisol on the bath and control days for t wo time-points before the bath and four timepoints after the bath as t he dependent variables, yielded significant effects of time, bath stat us, and day. Salivary cortisol testing is noninvasive and easy to coll ect from long-term care patients, including those with moderate degree s of dementia. It may be of use as a tool for studying the stressors a ssociated with care, the determinants of HPA responses, and the conseq uences of hypercortisolemia in these vulnerable patients.