ArticleScience progress
The use of saliva steroids (cortisol and DHEA-s) as biomarkers of changing stress levels in people with dementia and their caregivers: A pilot study.
Article in Science progress. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT05856604 (Evaluation of Cognitive Effects Generated by Music Therapy for Older Adults With Cognitive Impairment Living in Care Homes - a Randomized Control Trial), which is not on this map. Cited by 12 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Evaluation of Cognitive Effects Generated by Music Therapy for Older Adults With Cognitive Impairment Living in Care Homes - a Randomized Control Trial
Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 26 citations in OpenAlex.
- A Research Protocol to Develop a Prototype of a Music-Based Mobile Application to Improve Sleep in Persons Living With Dementia and Their Caregivers.Research in nursing & health · 2026Article
- Cortisol-to-DHEAS awakening response ratio in people with dementia and family caregivers: Associations with age, dementia severity and agitation.Comprehensive psychoneuroendocrinology · 2026Article
- Effect of cognitive training on cortisol levels in patients with neurocognitive disorders.The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences · 2026Article
- Review
- E-bibliotherapy for improving the psychological well-being of informal caregivers of people with dementia: a randomized controlled trial protocol.BMC nursing · 2024Article
- Psychobiological effects of an eHealth psychoeducational intervention to informal caregivers of persons with dementia: a pilot study during the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy.Aging clinical and experimental research · 2023Article
- Is Smart Working Beneficial for Workers' Wellbeing? A Longitudinal Investigation of Smart Working, Workload, and Hair Cortisol/Dehydroepiandrosterone Sulfate during the COVID-19 Pandemic.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Article
- Assessing stress using repeated saliva concentration of steroid hormones in dementia care dyads: results from a controlled pilot care music intervention.Upsala journal of medical sciences · 2023Article
- Persisting neuropsychiatric symptoms, Alzheimer's disease, and cerebrospinal fluid cortisol and dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate.Alzheimer's research & therapy · 2022Article
- The Impact of Music on Stress Biomarkers: Protocol of a Substudy of the Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial Music Interventions for Dementia and Depression in ELderly Care (MIDDEL).Brain sciences · 2022Article
- Links Between Arts and Health, Examples From Quantitative Intervention Evaluations.Frontiers in psychology · 2021Review
- Day-to-day variability of stress biomarkers during a music intervention in people living with dementia and their family caregivers.Science progressArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The rationale was to explore the efficacy/sensitivity of using morning and evening cortisol levels as biomarkers for stress reduction in persons with dementia (PWDs) and their family caregivers (FCGs) participating in a music intervention program. Thirty-two PWD and their FGC were recruited to an 8-week, home-based music intervention program. Daily home-based collection of saliva samples took place at bedtime and upon awakening. Cortisol was analyzed in the morning and evening saliva samples and DHEA-s in the morning samples. Trends over 40 workdays (15-40 observations per subject) were assessed using linear regression analysis. Twenty-three PWD (72% of invited, 16 men and 7 women, age 69-93) and 24 caregivers (75%, 8 men and 16 women, age 37-90) completed the intervention for at least 6 weeks and were included in the analysis. One-fourth of the PWD and FCG had decreasing evening cortisol, accompanied by decreasing morning cortisol levels. In one-fourth of the participants the ratio between cortisol and DHEA-S in the morning samples was improved, indicating improved balance between energy mobilization and regeneration. Several participants showed no significant endocrine change. There was a statistically significant (two-sided test) correlation within the PWD-caregiver dyads in evening cortisol trend and a statistically significant decrease (two-sided test) in the morning-evening cortisol slope for the FCG group. Reduction in stress, as measured by evening cortisol, was observed in a substantial number of the participants. Recording endocrine stress is helpful for the unbiased assessment of the intervention.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.