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Mental Health and Diurnal Salivary Cortisol Patterns Among African American and European American Female Dementia Family Caregivers

From the Departments of Psychology (TJM) and Neurology (TF), Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Cleveland, Ohio; the Donald W. Reynolds Department of Geriatric Medicine, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (KHS); and the University Memory and Aging Center, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio (TF).

Using a sociocultural stress and coping model, this pilot study examines the influence of depressive symptoms and stress on diurnal salivary cortisol patterns among African American (N=30) and European American (N=24) female dementia caregivers and noncaregivers (African American, N=48; European American, N=15). Caregiving participants completed the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D), Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), and Stress-Related Growth Scale (SRGS) as respective measures of depressive symptoms, stress, and stress resilience. Participants also collected five saliva samples daily for two consecutive days. African American caregivers scored significantly higher than European American caregivers on the SRGS, but they did not differ on the PSS and CES-D scales. Regression analyses with age, ethnicity, caregiving status, and depressive symptoms as predictors, and cortisol slope as criterion, showed that only age and ethnicity predicted cortisol slope. African Americans had flatter slopes than the European Americans sampled, regardless of caregiving status. Findings highlight the role of cultural beliefs and of ethnicity in explaining cortisol function.

Key Words: Ethnicity • caregiving • neuroendocrine function

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