The purpose of this study was to clarify childrenʼs subjective symptoms of fatigue and their relationship to the autonomic nervous system through a method of questionnaire and cold pressor test. The subjects were 254 boys and 184 girls (3rd-6th grade elementary school student, 3rd grade junior high school student, and 1st-3rd grade high school student). The investigation was carried out during May 2007 and May 2009. The results are summarized as follows：1 ) The total subjective symptoms of fatigue score rose as the school year progressed, and the score for girls was higher than for boys among high school students. Moreover, the percentage of those with a score of 0 points was only 7.4%. In addition, “I feel sleepy” and “I give a yawn” ranked as the two worst complaint items. The rate of complaint showed a relationship of Ⅰ group＞Ⅱ group＞Ⅲ group, assuming a tiredness type of “Mental work and night shift.” 2 ) The values derived from the vasopressor response by the cold pressor test were similar to the values of the previous study in 14.0±10.5 mmHg. Moreover, when these values were compared against past standards, 65.8% of subjects saw responses that were either low or excessive. 3 ) About the relations with subjective symptoms of fatigue and the autonomic nervous system, in the high school and the junior high school student, the relevance was not confirmed among both, but in the elementary school children, the group with a high tiredness score showed a larger vasopressor response than the low tiredness score group. From this, we surmise that an excessive sympathetic response to stimulation is operating behind the subjective symptoms of fatigue among the elementary group. And it is thought that an action to fix the imbalance of such an autonomic nervous system is necessary for the reduction of fatigue subjective symptoms.
