Chapter 4 108 Supplementary Table S4.1), whose assessment of OC use was more than 30 days before or after the CAR and PSQI assessments (n=5), who used systemic corticosteroid medication (n=1). After exclusions, data of 87 NC women, 31 OC users, and 124 men was available for the analyses using PSQI scores, resulting in a total sample of 242 participants for aim one. For the cortisol samples, measurements from participants whose baseline measurement was taken too late, i.e., more than 10 minutes after awakening (n=2), whose baseline (awakening) sample was missing (n=4) or for whom 2 or more samples of the CAR were missing (n=7) were excluded. After exclusions, data from 84 NC women, 28 OC users and 117 men was available for the analyses studying the PSQI and CAR, resulting in a total sample of 229 participants for aim two. 2.2. Demographic and clinical characteristics Participants’ age, cohabitation status, parity, education score (scored on a 5-point Likert scale where a score of 1 was given if having no vocational degree and 5 if having more than 4 years of higher academic education), BMI and smoking status were inquired at the time of the CAR measurement. Smoking was categorized into current smoker or non-smoker. Cohabitation status, parity and smoking status were missing in 18, 12 and 4 participants, respectively. The mental health of participants was investigated using the Major Depression Inventory (MDI) and Cohen’s Perceived Stress Scale (PSS). The MDI is an 12-item questionnaire inquiring about symptoms of depressed mood in the last two weeks (Bech & Wermuth, 2009). The PSS is a 10-item questionnaire on symptoms of stress in the last month (Cohen et al., 1983). Oral contraceptive use Information on contraceptive use, menstrual cycle duration and first day of the menstrual cycle was obtained either at the time of the CAR home sampling or a corresponding study visit. Women who reported not using OCs or who reported using a copper intrauterine device (IUD) were grouped in the NC group. Please note that the main analyses of this paper did not account for contraceptive pill generation or type and menstrual cycle, but PSQI scores and CAR values stratified per pill type and cycle phase (e.g., follicular or luteal phase) are reported in Supplementary Table S4.1 and S4.2.
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