2019 · Stress and health : journal of the International Society for the Investigation of Stress · paywalled
The influence of mindfulness and social support on stress reactivity during pregnancy
Sanchez Hernandez et al.
The finding, in our words
In 152 low-income pregnant women, saliva self-collected at home by passive drool showed that higher mindfulness and social support correlated with lower perceived stress reactivity, yet the cortisol awakening response did not differ. This demonstrates that home saliva sampling is feasible for stress biomarker assessment in pregnancy, but psychological interventions may affect subjective stress ratings more than physiological cortisol levels.
A paraphrase to the Library’s standard, never the abstract. The source is one link away and is always the authority.
This study used home self-collected saliva samples to successfully monitor cytokines and cortisol in mothers and infants, finding that a community singing intervention significantly reduced salivary interleukin-6 levels in mothers with postnatal depression.
At-home saliva sampling for cortisol was feasible over 12 days in two people with poststroke aphasia, with the cortisol awakening response remaining consistent across days and weeks.
This study found that salivary 11-dehydrodexamethasone correlates strongly with serum dexamethasone, unlike salivary dexamethasone which shows poor agreement. This validation suggests patients could self-collect saliva samples at home to verify dexamethasone absorption for the overnight suppression test.
This study validated a lateral flow fluorescence assay using quantum dots for saliva and europium nanoparticles for serum to detect cortisol within physiological ranges. The test operates in 15 minutes with a handheld reader, supporting point-of-care and at-home monitoring without a cold chain.
In a study of 46 perinatal nicotine users, dried blood spots and saliva were used weekly to measure reproductive hormones, finding that lower postpartum estradiol and greater peripartum declines in oxytocin were associated with increased nicotine craving and use. This demonstrates the feasibility of decentralised microsampling and remote surveys for longitudinal hormone tracking in vulnerable populations.