Psychological stress has a significant impact on individuals' quality of life and health. Traditionally, psychological stress assessment relies on self-reported tools such as the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), which are inherently subjective. This study aims to evaluate the feasibility of using wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) to assess cortisol and cortisone as biomarkers for psychological stress. We conducted sampling and monitoring of cortisol and cortisone concentrations at both a small-scale campus setting (five weeks) and a large-scale municipal wastewater treatment plant (12 months), calculating the mass loads of these hormones. At the campus level, while the mass load of cortisone was higher during exam weeks compared to regular class weeks, and higher in females than in males, no significant differences were observed in the mass load of cortisol. The mass load results of cortisone were consistent with the findings of the PSS-14 questionnaire. These results suggest that cortisone is a more suitable biomarker for psychological stress assessment. In the large-scale municipal wastewater samples, seasonal variations were observed, with higher levels of cortisol and cortisone in winter compared to summer, likely due to the COVID-19 outbreak in winter and the presence of external pharmaceutical sources. The results indicate that cortisone is more suitable for small-scale stress assessments, as larger-scale evaluations may be more significantly influenced by wastewater transport or sampling methodologies.

中文翻译：

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皮质醇和可的松作为废水流行病学中心理压力生物标志物的可行性研究


心理压力对个人的生活质量和健康有重大影响。传统上，心理压力评估依赖于自我报告的工具，例如感知压力量表 （PSS），这些工具本质上是主观的。本研究旨在评估使用基于废水的流行病学 （WBE） 评估皮质醇和可的松作为心理压力生物标志物的可行性。我们在小规模校园环境（5 周）和大型城市污水处理厂（12 个月）对皮质醇和可的松浓度进行了采样和监测，计算了这些激素的质量负荷。在校园层面，虽然考试周期间可的松的质量负荷高于常规上课周，女性高于男性，但皮质醇的质量负荷没有观察到显著差异。可的松的质量负荷结果与 PSS-14 问卷的结果一致。这些结果表明，可的松是更适合心理压力评估的生物标志物。在大规模城市废水样本中，观察到季节性变化，与夏季相比，冬季的皮质醇和可的松水平更高，这可能是由于冬季 COVID-19 的爆发和外部药物来源的存在。结果表明，可的松更适合小规模的压力评估，因为更大规模的评估可能受到废水运输或采样方法的更显着影响。