Аннотация:
The study objective was to assess the levels of salivary cortisol in young adults under conditioned stress load, with a special attention to the differences attributed to smoking status. The study group consisted of 388 university students, the mean age 20.25±1.81 years. In the course of examination the subjects completed psychological, sociological, and health-related questionnaires (what was considered as a conditioned psychological load), and then provided saliva samples. Salivary cortisol was measured by immunoenzyme technique. There were 79.1% non-smokers (NS), 3.6% occasional smokers (OS, 1 – 2 cigarettes a day), 12.9% low-smokers (LS, 3 – 9 cigarettes a day), and 4.4% moderate-smokers (MS, 10 – 20 cigarettes a day) in the study group. The average cortisol concentrations were found highest in NS and MS, minimal in OS, and intermediate in LS. According to ANOVA, the smoking status factor is significant (p = 0.0365). LSD-test revealed that the OS subgroup differ from both the NS (p = 0.009) and the MS subgroups (p = 0.031) by their average log-transformed and normalized values of salivary cortisol. Conclusions: cortisol production in the course of stress reaction differs in smokers depending on habitual intensity of smoking. Smoking before unexpected exposure to a psychological stressor could influence the production of cortisol in the course of consequent stress reaction.
Ключевые слова:
smoking, salivary cortisol, stress