Hair cortisol and self-perceived stress in adolescents with multi-system functional somatic disorders

BMC Psychiatry

Table 3 Comparison of hair cortisol concentrations between primary symptom clusters in AHEAD using multiple linear regression

Model^b	Dependent variable: HCC^a
Model^b	β	95%CI	P
Crude
General symptom cluster (n = 52)	1 (ref.)
Musculoskeletal symptom cluster (n = 17)	0.90	0.56; 1.42	0.635
Gastrointestinal symptom cluster (n = 19)	1.06	0.68; 1.64	0.809
Adjusted for sex, age and BMI
General symptom cluster (n = 52)	1 (ref.)
Musculoskeletal symptom cluster^c (n = 17)	0.93	0.58; 1.48	0.744
Gastrointestinal symptom cluster^d (n = 19)	1.07	0.69; 1.66	0.775

BMI Body Mass Index, CI confidence interval, HCC hair cortisol concentration, n number in specific population, ref. reference group
^aHCC was log-transformed for analyses; the table contains the back-transformed values
^bDue to a low number of patients (n = 3) in the cardiopulmonary/autonomic primary symptom cluster, data from this cluster were not included in the analyses
^cInterpretation (adjusted analysis comparing participants with primary symptoms from the general symptom cluster to participants with primary symptoms from the musculoskeletal symptom cluster): if two participants belonging to the general or musculoskeletal primary symptom cluster with the same sex, age and BMI are compared with each other, the participant with a musculoskeletal primary symptom will have a 7% (95%CI: -48%, 42%) lower median HCC than the participant with a general primary symptom
^dInterpretation (adjusted analysis comparing participants with primary symptoms from the general symptom cluster to participants with primary symptoms from the gastrointestinal symptom cluster): if two participants belonging to the general or gastrointestinal primary symptom cluster with the same sex, age and BMI are compared with each other, the participant with a gastrointestinal primary symptom will have a 7% (95%CI: -31%, 66%) higher median HCC than the participant with a general primary symptom

ISSN: 1471-244X