OBJECTIVE: To investigate the influence of occupational stress on salivary 
cortisol concentration in employees.
METHODS: In September 2014, occupational stress evaluation was performed for 186 
employees in a solar photovoltaic company, and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay 
was used to measure the salivary cortisol concentration.
RESULTS: The salivary cortisol concentration showed no significant differences 
between groups with different demographic features(P>0.05). The group with a 
high score of job control had a significantly lower salivary cortisol 
concentration than that with a low score(74.62±15.34 μg/L vs 79.95±12.99 μg/L, 
P<0.05). The groups with high scores of job danger and job responsibility and 
burden had significantly higher salivary cortisol concentrations than those with 
low scores(80.29±9.45 μg/L vs 75.60±16.41, P<0.05; 80.94±10.87 μg/L vs 
74.05±16.35 μg/L, P<0.05). The salivary cortisol concentration was positively 
correlated with the scores of job danger and job responsibility and 
burden(r=0.176 and 0.252, P<0.05) and negatively correlated with the score of 
job control(r=-0.208, P<0.05).
CONCLUSION: Salivary cortisol concentration is positively correlated with 
occupational stress and increases with the increasing degree of occupational 
stress, and can be used as an objective biomarker for the identification and 
evaluation of occupational stress.