Prevention & lipidsCohort study
Long-term cortisol exposure and echocardiographic measures of cardiac structure and function
- population-based cohort
Authors' conclusion
Taken together, in this population-based study, these findings provide little evidence that HCC is associated with clinically meaningful differences in cardiac structure or function in generally healthy middle-aged adults.
Study context
- Population
- Individuals aged 50–64 years in Sweden
- Participants
- 3,005 individuals
- Exposure
- Hair cortisol concentration (HCC) in relation to 19 echocardiographic parameters reflecting cardiac morphology and function
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
Three broad principal component analysis-derived cardiac phenotypes
- No significant association between HCC and three broad principal component analysis-derived cardiac phenotypes
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Further findings
| Outcome | β (SD per one-unit increase in log10-HCC) |
|---|---|
| Left Atrial End-Systolic Volume Index (LAESVI) · higher LAESVI with higher HCC · magnitude of this association was modest | 0.178 |
- Left Atrial End-Systolic Volume Index (LAESVI) — LAESVI higher across the IQR of HCC
- approximately 0.734 mL/m²
- Left Atrial End-Systolic Volume Index (LAESVI) — Share of the cohort median
- ~2.9%
- Left Atrial End-Systolic Volume Index (LAESVI): only measure showing a false discovery rate-adjusted significant association with HCC
19 individual echocardiographic measures
- Effect estimates were generally small and CIs largely included the null
Original publication
Long-term cortisol exposure and echocardiographic measures of cardiac structure and function. Heart. Published 7 October 2026. doi:10.1136/heartjnl-2026-328566
Summarised from the published abstract; every number is checked against it