This study examined salivary cortisol levels in couples in which one member had unexplained chronic fatigue (CF). The couples completed questionnaires and seven household activities in a laboratory setting and provided salivary cortisol samples prior to and immediately after the activities, as well as again after completing additional questionnaires and debriefing. The couples rated their interactions as similar to those at home, suggesting ecological validity, and patients with CF experienced the activities as involving more exertion than did their partners. The multilevel model results indicated that patients with CF had overall lower cortisol levels and flatter slopes across repeated measurements than did their significant others. Patients' and significant others' cortisol concentrations were significantly associated with each other over time. Furthermore, significant others' cortisol was associated with greater relationship satisfaction and greater observed rates of patients' illness/pain behaviors per minute, but patients' levels of cortisol were not associated with relationship variables. This study is the first to examine cortisol in couples with CF; the results are discussed in terms of implications for future research. (PsycINFO Database Record
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 3. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 15 September 2016.
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#20,154,520
of 31,701,117 outputs
Outputs from Journal of Family Psychology
#1,031
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Outputs of similar age
#164,694
of 295,309 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Journal of Family Psychology
#5
of 14 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 31,701,117 research outputs across all sources so far. This one is in the 35th percentile – i.e., 35% of other outputs scored the same or lower than it.
So far Altmetric has tracked 1,933 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 15.5. This one is in the 46th percentile – i.e., 46% of its peers scored the same or lower than it.
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We're also able to compare this research output to 14 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 64% of its contemporaries.
