Caregiver stress review found a tendency toward lower waking cortisol
A small review identified a biomarker pattern without establishing what lower waking levels mean for caregivers' health.
Based on the published abstract. The full paper may contain additional methods, results and limitations.
The 30-second takeaway
Across the included studies, caregivers supporting children with special health care needs tended to have lower waking cortisol than caregivers of healthy children. This biomarker pattern does not establish that they felt less stressed or had better health. The review suggests pairing biological measures with caregivers' own reports when studying stress.
The review included few articles, and some had high risk of bias. It reports a tendency without a pooled effect size or confidence interval, limiting conclusions about the difference's size and reliability.
What researchers found
Cortisol upon awakening
Caregivers supporting children with special health care needs versus caregivers of healthy children; measured on waking. Follow-up duration and effect size were not reported.
What studies measured
All studies measured cortisol, mostly in saliva; alpha-amylase was measured much less often. The review included varied study designs and judged most articles to be high quality, while identifying some with high risk of bias.
Complementing caregivers' reports
The authors present biomarkers as possible complements to self-report questionnaires. The abstract does not establish a cortisol cutoff for identifying caregiver distress, or show that biomarker testing improves care or predicts later illness.
The original publication
Evaluating stress experienced by caregivers of children with special health care needs via biomarkers: A systematic review.
Okido ACC, Lopes-Junior LC, Looman WS et al.
Medicine (Baltimore) · 2025
- PubMed ID
- 40922316
- Record checked
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