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Stress-related and basic determinants of hair cortisol in humans: A meta-analysis
Abstract
The analysis of hair cortisol concentrations (HCC) is a relatively new strategy to measure long-term cumulative cortisol levels, which is increasingly used in psychoneuroendocrinological research. Here, we conduct a first comprehensive meta-analysis of HCC research based on aggregated data from a total of 124 (sub)samples (66 independent studies; total N=10,289). We seek to answer two central questions: (i) Which covariates and basic features of HCC need to be considered in future research? (ii) What are the main determinants of HCC in terms of chronic stress exposure and mental health? Concerning basic characteristics, our findings identify several covariates to be considered (age, sex, hair washing frequency, hair treatment, oral contraceptive use), confirm a decline of HCC from the first to the second proximal 3cm hair segment, and show positive associations between HCC and short-term salivary cortisol measures. Regarding chronic stress, we show that stress-exposed groups on a whole exhibit 22% increased HCC. This long-term cortisol hypersecretion emerges particularly when stress is still ongoing at the time of study (+43% HCC) but is not present in conditions of past/absent stress (-9% HCC, n.s.). We also report evidence for 17%-reduced HCC in anxiety disorders, such as PTSD. Interestingly, no consistent associations with mood disorders and self-reports of perceived stress, depressiveness or social support are found. However, our findings reveal positive associations of HCC with stress-related anthropometric (body mass index, waist-to-hip ratio) and hemodynamic measures (systolic blood pressure). These meta-analytic results are discussed in the light of their practical implications and important areas for future inquiry are outlined.
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“Meta-analytic and descriptive reviews show that chronic stress is associated with elevated long-term cortisol secretion (Stalder et al., 2017; Staufenbiel et al., 2013), with stressor duration and recency since stressor onset being important factors in shaping basal cortisol levels (Miller et al., 2007).”
From More than a feeling: A unified view of stress measurement for population science (2018) · cites this paper as Stalder et al., 2017
In the citing paper
“Elevated hair cortisol levels in stressed populations have previously been found (reviewed in Stalder et al., 2017; Staufenbiel et al., 2013).”
From Chronic Stress, Hair Cortisol and Depression: A Prospective and Longitudinal Study of Medical Internship (2018) · cites this paper as Stalder et al., 2017
In the citing paper
“However, the first meta-analytic review, which included primarily cross-sectional studies, did not show consistent links with self-reported depressiveness (Stalder et al., 2017).”
From Chronic Stress, Hair Cortisol and Depression: A Prospective and Longitudinal Study of Medical Internship (2018) · cites this paper as Stalder et al., 2017
In the citing paper
“Cross-sectional studies have shown elevated hair cortisol in stressed populations (Stalder et al., 2017; Staufenbiel et al., 2013)”
From Chronic Stress, Hair Cortisol and Depression: A Prospective and Longitudinal Study of Medical Internship (2018) · cites this paper as Stalder et al., 2017
In the citing paper
“Our results are consistent with a recent meta-analysis that found no clear relationships between hair cortisol and self-reported depressiveness (Stalder et al., 2017).”
From Chronic Stress, Hair Cortisol and Depression: A Prospective and Longitudinal Study of Medical Internship (2018) · cites this paper as Stalder et al., 2017
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“However, the first meta-analytic review, which included primarily cross-sectional studies, did not show consistent links with self-reported depressiveness (Stalder et al., 2017).”
BackgroundResultInfluentialHair cortisol concentrations in war-affected adolescents: A prospective intervention trial
Dajani, R., Hadfield, K., van Uum, S., Greff, M., & Panter-Brick, C. (2018) · Psychoneuroendocrinology · doi:10.1016/j.psyneuen.2017.12.012 · Cited by 108
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“This long-term cortisol hypersecretion emerges particularly when stress is still ongoing at the time of study (Stalder et al., 2017).”
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Newborn infants’ hair cortisol levels reflect chronic maternal stress during pregnancy
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Obesity, Dietary Patterns, and Hormonal Balance Modulation: Gender-Specific Impacts
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“Recent studies highlight the significant associations between obesity and long-term cortisol levels, measured in scalp hair, across diverse age groups [53,54].”
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“For example, biological markers for chronically elevated stress hormones, such as the assessment of hair cortisol concentrations (Stalder et al., 2017).”
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“However, correlations between concentrations of cortisol in hair and body fluids are typically low (Stalder et al., 2017), indicating that they may represent distinct aspects of HPA-axis function.”
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“As a first step, potential confounders were entered en bloc into the model: sex, age, BMI, hair treatment, alcohol consumption, smoking, caffeine consumption and medication intake (c.f. Stalder et al., 2017).”
InfluentialSelf-citationRietschel, L., Streit, F., Zhu, G., McAloney, K., Frank, J., Couvy‐Duchesne, B., Witt, S. H., Binz, T. M., Bolton, J. L., Hayward, C., et al. (2017) · Scientific Reports · doi:10.1038/s41598-017-11852-3 · Cited by 80
“A recent meta-analysis based on aggregated data from a total of 124 samples, and comprising 10,289 subjects, showed no consistent associations with mood disorders or self-reported perceived stress and depressiveness, but found that stress-exposed groups as a whole exhibit 22% increased HCC 24 .”
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“However, research examining hair cortisol and subjective reports of stress tend to report no association (Stalder et al., 2017).”
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“A number of studies have been performed in this field that investigated hair cortisol across a range of stress-related conditions in humans [12].”
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“A meta-analysis also revealed positive associations of HCC with BMI, waist-to-hip ratio, and systolic blood pressure (Stalder et al., 2017).”
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“Still, meta-analytic data revealed no consistent relationships with questionnaire-based measures of perceived stress or clinical symptoms (Stalder et al., 2017).”
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“Hair cortisol was also found to be lower in individuals with anxiety.(55) Individuals with depression were found to display lower tonic skin conductance,(56) and decreased phasic SCR,(56) and with increased phasic latency SCR.”
BackgroundPosttraumatic Stress Disorder and Anxiety-Related Conditions
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“, 2014), and hair analysis, which gives reliable retrospective cortisol levels up to 5 months (Stalder et al., 2017), are examples of sampling”
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Analyzing chronic disease biomarkers using electrochemical sensors and artificial neural networks
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“However, a recent meta-analysis has shown that self-reported stress is unrelated to HCC (Stalder et al., 2017).”
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“, 2019) and hyperactivity in PTSD (Stalder et al., 2017), although some metaanalyses found no relationship (Klaassens, Giltay,”
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Self-citationSex differences in cortisol levels in depression: A systematic review and meta-analysis
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“94”
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“winter months) and frequency of hair washing are potentially related to HCC levels (Stalder and Kirschbaum, 2012; Stalder et al., 2017).”
BackgroundThe embodiment of water insecurity: Injuries and chronic stress in lowland Bolivia
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“As subjective and objective measures of stress do not have to be related to each other (Stalder et al., 2017), future research might use more valid methods of assessing stress states in relation to IO.”
Prenatal and Postnatal Hair Steroid Levels Predict Post-Partum Depression 12 Weeks after Delivery
Jahangard, L., Mikoteit, T., Bahiraei, S., Zamanibonab, M., Haghighi, M., Bahmani, D. S., & Brand, S. (2019) · Journal of Clinical Medicine · doi:10.3390/jcm8091290 · Cited by 55
“Again, these results are a good match with findings reported elsewhere [19,37].”
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Stress and hair cortisol concentrations from preconception to the third trimester
Orta, O. R., Tworoger, S. S., Terry, K. L., Coull, B. A., Gelaye, B., Kirschbaum, C., Sánchez, S. E., & Williams, M. A. (2018) · Stress · doi:10.1080/10253890.2018.1504917 · Cited by 52
“relationship between HCC and self-reported perceived stress or depression but found a 17% reduction in HCC with anxiety disorders (Stalder et al., 2017).”
BackgroundMethodResultInfluentialSelf-citationInvestigating individual stress reactivity: High hair cortisol predicts lower acute stress responses
Sandner, M., Lois, G., Streit, F., Zeier, P., Kirsch, P., Wüst, S., & Wessa, M. (2020) · Psychoneuroendocrinology · doi:10.1016/j.psyneuen.2020.104660 · Cited by 54
Mechanisms of Central Hypogonadism
Barber, T. M., Kyrou, I., Kaltsas, G., Grossman, A. B., Randeva, H. S., & Weickert, M. O. (2021) · International Journal of Molecular Sciences · doi:10.3390/ijms22158217 · Cited by 50
“Accordingly, the functioning of such vital systems is typically robust, and is maintained despite the co-occurrence of disease and distress (albeit with enhanced release of cortisol [3,4] and sometimes the sick euthyroid syndrome [5]).”
BackgroundExamining reactivity patterns in burnout and other indicators of chronic stress
Wekenborg, M., von Dawans, B., Hill, L. K., Thayer, J. F., Penz, M. S., & Kirschbaum, C. (2019) · Psychoneuroendocrinology · doi:10.1016/j.psyneuen.2019.04.002 · Cited by 53
“…(Gerber et al., 2013; Steudte-Schmiedgen et al., 2017), and three studies (Herane-Vives et al., 2018; Hinkelmann et al., 2013; Janssens et al., 2017), as well as a recently published meta-analysis (Stalder et al., 2017), which did not find any significant associations between HCC and depression.”
ResultSelf-citationStress and hair cortisol concentrations in nurses during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic
Rajčáni, J., Vytykačová, S., Soláriková, P., & Brezina, I. (2021) · Psychoneuroendocrinology · doi:10.1016/j.psyneuen.2021.105245 · Cited by 50
Hair cortisol and the relationship with chronic pain and quality of life in endometriosis patients
van Aken, M., Oosterman, J., van Rijn, T., Ferdek, M., Ruigt, G., Kozicz, T., Braat, D., Peeters, A., & Nap, A. (2018) · Psychoneuroendocrinology · doi:10.1016/j.psyneuen.2018.01.001 · Cited by 48
Iob, E., Kirschbaum, C., & Steptoe, A. (2018) · Psychoneuroendocrinology · doi:10.1016/j.psyneuen.2018.06.008 · Cited by 47
“both cortisol (Stalder et al., 2017; Steptoe et al., 2017) and social support (Croezen et al.”
Self-citationWooddell, L. J., Hamel, A. F., Murphy, A. M., Byers, K. L., Kaburu, S., Meyer, J. S., Suomi, S. J., & Dettmer, A. M. (2017) · Psychoneuroendocrinology · doi:10.1016/j.psyneuen.2017.06.018 · Cited by 48
Hair Cortisol Concentration as a Biomarker of Sleep Quality and Related Disorders
Mlili, N. E., Ahabrach, H., & Cauli, O. (2021) · Life · doi:10.3390/life11020081 · Cited by 50
Jankovic‐Rankovic, J., Oka, R., Meyer, J. S., & Gettler, L. T. (2020) · Social Science & Medicine · doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2020.113070 · Cited by 52
Hair cortisol levels in posttraumatic stress disorder and metabolic syndrome
van den Heuvel, L. L., Tobias Stalder, A., du Plessis, S., Suliman, S., Kirschbaum, C., & Seedat, S. (2020) · Stress · doi:10.1080/10253890.2020.1724949 · Cited by 47
Self-citationMindfulness‐based program for stress reduction in infertile women: Randomized controlled trial
Nery, S. F., Paiva, S. P. C., Vieira, É. L., Barbosa, A. B., Sant'Anna, E. M., Casalechi, M., Dela Cruz, C., Teixeira, A. L., & Reis, F. M. (2019) · Stress and Health · doi:10.1002/smi.2839 · Cited by 50
Mini-review of hair cortisol concentration for evaluation of Cushing syndrome
Hodes, A., Meyer, J., Lodish, M. B., Stratakis, C. A., & Zilbermint, M. (2018) · Expert Review of Endocrinology & Metabolism · doi:10.1080/17446651.2018.1517043 · Cited by 46
Shaheen, M., Schindler‐Gmelch, L., Saar‐Ashkenazy, R., Odeh, K. B., Soreq, H., Friedman, A., & Kirschbaum, C. (2018) · Psychophysiology · doi:10.1111/psyp.13271 · Cited by 46
Self-citationPanter‐Brick, C., Wiley, K. S., Sancilio, A., Dajani, R. B., & Hadfield, K. (2019) · Brain Behavior and Immunity · doi:10.1016/j.bbi.2019.02.015 · Cited by 46
“, 2010) and HCC (Rippe et al., 2016; Stalder et al., 2017), but is unrelated to EBV (McClure et al.”
Perceived stress and reference ranges of hair cortisol in healthy adolescents
Prado‐Gascó, V., de la Barrera, U., Sancho-Castillo, S., Rubia, J. E. D. L., & Montoya‐Castilla, I. (2019) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0214856 · Cited by 52
The relationship between chronic stress, hair cortisol and hypertension
Bautista, L. E., Bajwa, P., Shafer, M. M., Malecki, K. M. C., McWilliams, C., & Palloni, A. (2019) · International Journal of Cardiology Hypertension · doi:10.1016/j.ijchy.2019.100012 · Cited by 54
Shapero, B. G., Curley, E. E., Black, C. L., & Alloy, L. B. (2019) · Depression and Anxiety · doi:10.1002/da.22957 · Cited by 49
“…study (Mayer et al., 2018) and tentative findings from a recent meta‐analysis that included seven studies and a limited sample of 279 participants (Stalder et al., 2017) have failed to find an association between hair cortisol and depressive measures, the results from the current study are in…”
ResultVoegel, C. D., Hofmann, M., Kræmer, T., Baumgartner, M. R., & Binz, T. M. (2019) · Steroids · doi:10.1016/j.steroids.2019.108547 · Cited by 46
“Previous studies found that hair cortisol was higher in male individuals [4, 26, 27].”
ResultAssociation between hair cortisol and diurnal basal cortisol levels: A 30-day validation study
Sugaya, N., Izawa, S., Ogawa, N., Shirotsuki, K., & Nomura, S. (2020) · Psychoneuroendocrinology · doi:10.1016/j.psyneuen.2020.104650 · Cited by 46
Fendel, J. C., Aeschbach, V. M.-J., Schmidt, S., & Göritz, A. S. (2021) · Journal of Internal Medicine · doi:10.1111/joim.13374 · Cited by 50
Khoury, J. E., Giles, L., Kaur, H., Johnson, D., González, A., & Atkinson, L. R. (2022) · Psychoneuroendocrinology · doi:10.1016/j.psyneuen.2022.105969 · Cited by 51
Li, Y., Jia, W., Yan, N., Hua, Y., Han, T., Yang, J., Ma, L., & Ma, L. (2023) · Journal of Affective Disorders · doi:10.1016/j.jad.2023.02.123 · Cited by 44
Variation in glucocorticoid sensitivity and the relation with obesity
Lengton, R., Iyer, A. M., van der Valk, E. S., Hoogeveen, E. K., Meijer, O. C., van der Voorn, B., & van Rossum, E. F. C. (2021) · Obesity Reviews · doi:10.1111/obr.13401 · Cited by 45
Kuckuck, S., Lengton, R., Boon, M., Boersma, E., Penninx, B., Kavousi, M., & van Rossum, E. V. (2023) · Journal of Internal Medicine · doi:10.1111/joim.13739 · Cited by 34
“…even an inverse association [33]— were performed in populations, which predominantly comprised individuals with non-metabolic chronic health impairments, some of which have previously been shown to potentially affect activity of the HPA-axis and its interactions with other body systems [52, 53].”
BackgroundMindfulness-Based Interventions and the Hypothalamic–Pituitary–Adrenal Axis: A Systematic Review
Vargas‐Uricoechea, H., Castellanos-Pinedo, A., Urrego-Noguera, K., Vargas-Sierra, H. D., Fernández, M. V. P., Barceló, E., & Giraldo, A. F. R. (2024) · Neurology International · doi:10.3390/neurolint16060115 · Cited by 52
“…measurements; however, this test is affected by factors such as race, hair growth rate, and the use of dyes, shampoo and bleaching; additionally, there are no standardized measurement units available for its reporting, nor have normality values in different age groups been established [82–85].”
Maternal experiences of trauma and hair cortisol in early childhood in a prospective cohort
Slopen, N. B., Roberts, A. L., LeWinn, K. Z., Bush, N. R., Rovnaghi, C. R., Tylavsky, F. A., & Anand, K. J. S. (2018) · Psychoneuroendocrinology · doi:10.1016/j.psyneuen.2018.08.027 · Cited by 43
Chen, Z., Zhang, Q., Chen, S., Wang, W., Liu, G., & Deng, H. (2019) · Steroids · doi:10.1016/j.steroids.2019.05.010 · Cited by 43
Wettstein, A., Kühne, F., Tschacher, W., & Marca, R. L. (2020) · Frontiers in Neuroscience · doi:10.3389/fnins.2020.00112 · Cited by 48
Obesity, perceived weight discrimination, and hair cortisol: a population-based study
Jackson, S. E., & Steptoe, A. (2018) · Psychoneuroendocrinology · doi:10.1016/j.psyneuen.2018.08.018 · Cited by 45
Meyer, J. S., & Novak, M. A. (2020) · Developmental Psychobiology · doi:10.1002/dev.22021 · Cited by 44
Assayag, E. B., Tene, O., Korczyn, A. D., Shopin, L., Auriel, E., Molad, J., Hallevi, H., Kirschbaum, C., Bornstein, N. M., Shenhar‐Tsarfaty, S., et al. (2017) · Psychoneuroendocrinology · doi:10.1016/j.psyneuen.2017.05.013 · Cited by 41
Self-citationOuellet‐Morin, I., Cantave, C. Y., Paquin, S., Geoffroy, M., Brendgen, M. R., Vitaro, F., Tremblay, R. E., Boivin, M., LUPIEN, S. J., & Côté, S. M. (2020) · Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry · doi:10.1111/jcpp.13228 · Cited by 46
Metadata
- Authors
- Stalder, T., Steudte-Schmiedgen, S., Alexander, N., Klucken, T., Vater, A., Wichmann, S., Kirschbaum, C., & Miller, R.
- Affiliations
- Universität Hamburg (DE)
- University of Siegen (DE)
- Technische Universität Dresden (DE)
- MSB Medical School Berlin (DE)
- Venue
- Psychoneuroendocrinology
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2017-03
- Volume
- 77
- Pages
- 261-274
- ISSN
- 0306-4530 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2512922965
- Semantic Scholar
- 78b482bd463a2e29e2aae66b9cf8e24a66b06fe6
- Cited by
- 855
- References
- 154
- Citations by year
- 2026: 83 · 2025: 100 · 2024: 123 · 2023: 101 · 2022: 88 · 2021: 111 · 2020: 95 · 2019: 74 · 2018: 56 · 2017: 23
- FWCI
- 5.97
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Psychoneuroendocrinology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- German Research Foundation (1213/5-1, 940/2)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Behavioral Neuroscience › Stress Responses and Cortisol
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism › Adrenal Hormones and Disorders
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Animal Science and Zoology › Animal Behavior and Welfare Studies
- Keywords
- hair cortisol, chronic stress, cortisol hypersecretion, salivary cortisol, anxiety disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, mood disorders, perceived stress, body mass index, waist-to-hip ratio, systolic blood pressure, hair treatment, oral contraceptive use
- MeSH terms
- Hair, Hemodynamics, Humans, Hydrocortisone, Stress, Psychological
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