Correlation of salivary cortisol levels and subjective stress parameters -Quantitative case analysis of caregivers of dementia patients

Objective: This study examined the relationship over time between salivary cortisol as an objective stress parameter and subjective stress parameters (mood, physical complaints and sleep disturbances). Methods: This was achieved using the structured diaries of two caregivers o f patients with dementia kept over periods of 84 or 98 days. Three differen t methods of time series analysis were used: ARIMA-time series analysis, de termination of types of days by cluster analysis and divisive process analy sis. Results: The results obtained in the cluster analysis and divisive process analysis supported the assumed association between subjective stress parame ters and levels of salivary cortisol measured in the morning. The results o f the ARIMA-time series analysis were less conclusive. Conclusions: We can conclude that salivary morning cortisol level is a biol ogical measure of long term stress useful to describe the mental health of a person over a period of weeks and maybe also specific states of stress. C orrelations in the short term (several days) using the ARIMA-time series an alysis were less pronounced.