Development of a culturally informed protocol for hair cortisol sampling in Black women

Abstract

This article describes the development of a culturally informed hair collection protocol for cortisol research with Black women. We first conducted a formative research study investigating the acceptability of hair cortisol sampling for African‐American college women, where acceptance reached 54%. Findings, including the reasons reported for participation, were then used to develop a culturally informed hair sampling protocol for two studies in a community setting where acceptance improved to 75%. Specific barriers to hair sampling for research in this population were supported. Recommendations to increase participation in hair sampling are provided.

The Influence of Chronic Stress and Emotions on Eating Behavior Patterns and Weight among Young African American Women

“…Fifty-four percent of that study sample provided a hair sample. Reasons for declining to provide a hair sample were consistent with our study sample (Manns-James & Neal-Barnett, 2019).…”

Self-collection of hair samples during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…The required amount of hair needed for the sample varies in the literature from 30 to 150 strands [ 13 , 14 ]. Our protocol included the amount of hair mentioned most consistently in the literature (50 strands) and also mentioned the size to approximate half the diameter of a pencil eraser for ease of understanding.…”

Hair me out: Highlighting systematic exclusion in psychophysiological methods and recommendations to increase inclusion

“…The source of this exclusion lies in the inadequacy of a given method to accommodate people with a variety of phenotypic traits, a direct form of “phenotypic bias” (Webb et al, 2022 ). When access to a participant's hair is required, even without the use of equipment, as is the case for hair sample collection, phenotypic bias can still be present and affect research practices methods and contribute to underrepresentation in research samples (Manns-James and Neal-Barnett, 2019 ; Choy et al, 2021 ). To highlight this, we focus our discussion on how EEG and hair sample collection to assay for cortisol results in the exclusion of Black participants, in particular.…”

“…Such research has also historically excluded BIPOC individuals and women (Taffe and Gilpin, 2021 ; Taylor et al, 2021 ), with individuals at the intersection of different marginalized identities (e.g., BIPOC women) being even less represented (Spates, 2012 ; Kuria, 2014 ). Exclusion in neuroscience research occurs despite evidence that suggests Black and POC participants are willing to participate in research overall (Wendler et al, 2005 ; Jones and Neblett, 2017 ; Manns-James and Neal-Barnett, 2019 ). This lack of representation has harmed our ability to make scientific progress, as findings commonly thought to be “generalizable” often only speak to a subset of WEIRD and White people and perpetuates harm onto BIPOC communities.…”