The Validity and Reliability for a Salivary Cortisol Point of Care Test

The Validity and Reliability for a Salivary Cortisol Point of Care Test

Introduction: Saliva analysis is commonly used in applied sport science research and practice due to convenience and ease of sample collection with traditional measures requiring immediate refrigeration and taking several hours to analyse. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to evaluate the validity and reliability of measuring salivary cortisol concentration ([sCort]) in situ with the Individual Profiling (IPRO) oral fluid collector (OFC) method against the salimetrics oral swab (SOS) and passive drool (PD). Methods: Ten (N=10, male=5 and female=5) healthy, recreationally active university students volunteered to participate in the present study. Participants provided three samples in trial one (i.e. one of OFC, SOS and PD). In trial two participants repeated the sample procedure from trial one, with four participants providing duplicate OFC swabs for reliability analysis. The duplicate swabs were analysed on duplicate lateral flow devices (LFD) to test for reliability. Results: No significant difference was found between OFC and SOS (p=0.881) and PD (p=0.145) measures, showing good agreement with no bias. Both duplicate OFC and LFD samples were not significantly different from another, with an ICC of 0.890 and 0.850 respectively. Discussion: The present study demonstrates the IPRO method to be a valid and reliable measure of [sCort] in recreationally active individuals, indicating a useful and convenient measure for salivary cortisol testing in field environments.