{"doi":"10.1016/j.cpnec.2024.100267","title":"Hair cortisol sampling as a measure of physiological stress in youth with acute musculoskeletal pain","abstract":"Stress physiology contributes to health outcomes. Hair cortisol concentration (HCC) is an objective measure of cumulative cortisol secretion associated with health, including pain. The aim of the current study was to describe associations between pre-injury stress physiology (as measured by HCC), acute pain characteristics and relevant demographic factors (i.e., BMI, age, sex, days since injury) in youth with an acute musculoskeletal (MSK) injury. Participants were 58 youth aged 11 to 17 with acute MSK pain. Participants completed self-report measures assessing pain intensity, pain catastrophizing, and pain interference. Hair was collected within 1 month after injury using hair cortisol collection procedures adapted from published research protocols. Correlations examining associations among HCC values and clinical/demographic factors revealed that higher HCC was associated with lower body mass index (BMI) and male sex. HCC was not associated with pain variables or age. Additional research is needed to clarify the relation between HCC and psychosocial variables to aid researchers in studying the role of pre-injury stress in acute MSK injury and pain recovery in youth. • Hair cortisol sampling is feasible with youth with acute musculoskeletal injury. • In this pilot sample, hair cortisol concentration was not associated with pain ratings, pain catastrophizing or pain interference. • Males had greater HCC than females and BMI was significantly negatively associated with HCC. • Future research in youth with pain ought to further explore the complex systems linking stress physiology and pain.","journal":"Comprehensive Psychoneuroendocrinology","year":2024,"id":481603,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":1,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9624,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2024-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":928778,"name":"Jacqueline R. O’Brien","orcid":"0000-0003-3091-8077","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1137710,"name":"Jessica Heierle","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":316661,"name":"Eleanor Battison","orcid":"0000-0001-7037-9325","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1195354,"name":"Anna Wilson","orcid":"0000-0003-1351-2227","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":97893,"name":"Cynthia R. Rovnaghi","orcid":"0000-0002-3335-2825","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":55879,"name":"Kanwaljeet J. S. Anand","orcid":"0000-0001-6498-1483","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":436207,"name":"Amy Lewandowski Holley","orcid":"0000-0002-5274-0882","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":758582,"name":"Wendy M. Gaultney","orcid":"0000-0002-1697-1800","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":22,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:07:10.067421Z","pmid":"39411564","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}