Toxic stress, health and nutrition among Brazilian children in shelters

BMC Pediatrics

Table 3 Analysis of covariance of hair cortisol and characteristics of children residing at welfare shelters, Brazil, 2017

VARIABLES	Categories	N	Cortisol (pg/mg)		p-value	Adjusted p-value ^†
VARIABLES	Categories	N	Mean	Standard deviation	p-value	Adjusted p-value ^†
Reason for admission to shelter	Abandonment	18	10.10	10.77	0.707
	Negligence	21	9.51	12.62
	Violence	9	6.46	5.87
Stay at shelter	≤ 12 months	33	10.38	12.52	0.251
Stay at shelter	> 12 months	15	6.47	4.96
Past history of shelter	Yes	35	9.24	9.58	0.936
Past history of shelter	No	13	8.95	14.12
Age upon admission	≤12 months	20	10.57	9.81	0.361
Age upon admission	> 12 months	24	7.48	12.02
Siblings in shelter	Yes	24	8.64	11.45	0.742
Siblings in shelter	No	24	9.68	10.40
Contact with mother	Yes	12	8.85	10.17	0.910
Contact with mother	No	36	9.26	11.18
Illness	Yes	11	15.83	18.40	0.155	0.012*
Illness	No	37	7.18	6.45
Hospitalization	Yes	11	19.16	18.09	0.039*	0.001*
Hospitalization	No	37	6.18	4.76
Caries	Yes	2	4.72	1.82	0.559
Caries	No	46	9.35	11.03
Anemia	Yes	10	9.92	13.34	0.831
Anemia	No	37	9.08	10.39
Eating behavior	Healthy	19	8.63	12.20	0.788
Eating behavior	Unhealthy	29	9.51	10.05
Stature for age	Low	10	10.36	13.45	0.698
Stature for age	Adequate	38	8.84	10.23

† p-value adjusted for use of corticoids using ANCOVA. Cortisol as dependent variable
*Only significant variables (p ≤ 0.20) included in analysis
Source: Author

ISSN: 1471-2431