The 30-item TICS measured chronic stress on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 0 (never) to 4 (very often) during the past month. Test-retest reliability (r=0.60-0.91), internal consistency (α=.61-.93), and intercorrelations (r=0.42-0.63) were acceptable for the following subscales: work overload, work discontent, overextended at work, performance pressure at work, worry propensity, social overload, social tension, lack of social recognition, performance pressure in social interactions, and social isolation. These subscales were aggregated into an index representing chronic stress.
An AL score was formulated using a count-based formulation in which all 11 measured biomarkers held equal value. A score of 1 was assigned to biomarkers falling within a high-risk percentile (upper 75th percentile for all biomarkers except high-density lipoprotein [HDL] and dehydroepiandrosterone, for which the lowest 25th percentile corresponds to highest risk) based on a population's distribution of normative biomarker values used in clinical practice.
29-33 Allostatic load score was represented as a numerical value from 0 to 20 and was interpreted as the total number of biomarkers in which the participant fell into the high-risk percentile.