唾液アミラーゼと首尾一貫感覚(SOC)との関連 : ストレス対処能力の指標

抄録

Salivary alpha-amylase (sAA) might be a promising tool with which to evaluate sympathoadrenal medullary system activity. We demonstrated that sAA activity corresponding to exercise test outcomes could function as an index of ability to cope with stress. We investigated the ability of 55 healthy female volunteers (age, 53.7 years; SD, 10.8y) to cope with stress using the sense of coherence (SOC) scale before exercise tests. Levels of sAA activity were measured in saliva samples that were collected before, immediately after and 30 minutes after exercise tests. We then devised an index of changes in sAA based on the values at each of the three time points. Those with medium SOC values had a significantly higher index score than those with high SOC values (p<0.01; four-way ANOVA followed by multiple comparisons using the Bonferroni test). These findings suggest that our index of changes in sAA activities can serve as a marker of the ability to cope with stress.