Salivary cortisone as potential predictor of occupational exposure to noise and related stress

Correlations between the seven HSE domains and cortisone or cortisol levels in occupationally noise-exposed participants (N=50)

HSE domains	Risk probability (median; IQR)	Cortisone		Cortisol
		Spearman's rho	P	Spearman's rho	P
Unawareness of changes	Moderate (3.7; 3.3–4.0)	0.109	0.451	−0.013	0.939
Role ambiguity	High (4.8; 4.4–5.0)	−0.188	0.190	−0.098	0.574
Problematic relationships	Low (1.8; 1.5–2.5)	0.053	0.714	0.074	0.714
Lack of co-worker support	High (4.0; 3.5–4.8)	0.124	0.391	0.001	0.997
Lack of managerial support	High (4.2; 3.4–4.5)	0.078	0.590	−0.088	0.617
Lack of control	Moderate (3.8; 3.5–4.2)	−0.077	0.597	−0.086	0.623
High demands	Low (2.4; 2.1–2.9)	−0.039	0.789	0.118	0.501

Correlations between perceived stress (PSS-10 questionnaire) and cortisone and cortisol levels among noise-exposed (N=50) and control (N=54) participants

	Cortisone		Cortisol
	Exposed	Control	Exposed	Control
Spearman's rho	−0.394	0.142	−0.220	0.176
P	0.019*	0.395	0.125	0.204

Salivary cortisone and cortisol levels among noise-exposed (N=50) and control participants (N=54)

	Cortisone		Cortisol
	Exposed	Control	Exposed	Control
Median (nmol/L)	32.4*	21.2	8.7*	6.8
Interquartile range (nmol/L)	18.5–49.8	18.0–23.6	6.9–11.2	6.1–7.1