Cross-sectional analysis reveals COVID-19 pandemic community lockdown was linked to dysregulated cortisol and salivary alpha amylase in children

Katherine M Lloyd; Laurel Gabard-Durnam; Kayleigh Beaudry; Michael De Lisio; Lauren B Raine; Ysabeau Bernard-Willis; Jennifer N H Watrous; Susan Whitfield-Gabrieli; Arthur F Kramer; Charles H Hillman

doi:10.3389/fpubh.2023.1210122

Cross-sectional analysis reveals COVID-19 pandemic community lockdown was linked to dysregulated cortisol and salivary alpha amylase in children

Front Public Health. 2023 Dec 15:11:1210122. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1210122. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychology, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, United States.
² Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada.
³ Department of Physical Therapy, Movement, and Rehabilitation Sciences, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, United States.
⁴ Division of Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, United States.
⁵ Department of Psychology, Oklahoma State University, Tulsa, OK, United States.
⁶ University of Illinois Beckman Institute, Champaign-Urbana, IL, United States.

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic altered everyday life starting in March 2020. These alterations extended to the lives of children as their normal routines were disrupted by community lockdowns, online learning, limited in-person social contact, increased screen time, and reduced physical activity. Considerable research has investigated the physical health impact of COVID-19 infection, but far fewer studies have investigated the physiological impact of stressful pandemic-related changes to daily life, especially in children. The purpose of this study was to leverage an ongoing clinical trial to investigate physiological consequences associated with chronic stress of pandemic community lockdown on children. As a part of the clinical trial, children provided saliva samples. Saliva samples were analyzed for cortisol and salivary alpha amylase (sAA) content. This secondary cross-sectional analysis included 94 preadolescent children located within the Greater Boston, Massachusetts community. Children participated in the study either before, during, or following the pandemic community lockdown to form three groups for comparison. In response to chronic stress caused by the pandemic community lockdown, participants demonstrated dysregulation of fast-acting catecholamine response of the locus-coeruleus-norepinephrine system and slower-acting glucocorticoid response, resulting in an asymmetrical relationship of hypocortisolism (M = 0.78 ± 0.19 μg/mL, p < 0.001) paired with higher sAA (M = 12.73 ± 4.06 U/mL, p = 0.01). Results suggest that the abrupt COVID-19 disruption to daily life, including the stressful experience of community lockdown, had physiological effects on typically developing children. Further research is required to investigate mental health outcomes of children following the chronic stress of the pandemic community lockdown.

Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03592238.

Keywords: COVID- 19; children; cortisol; dysregulation; salivary alpha amylase; stress.

Publication types

Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

COVID-19* / epidemiology
Child
Communicable Disease Control
Cross-Sectional Studies
Humans
Hydrocortisone / analysis
Pandemics
Salivary alpha-Amylases* / analysis
Stress, Psychological

Substances

Salivary alpha-Amylases
Hydrocortisone

Associated data

ClinicalTrials.gov/NCT03592238

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the National Institute of Health, grant NCT03592238.