The Usefulness of Salivary α-Amylase Activity to Evaluate Degree of Stress
2012 Volume 10 Issue 3 Pages 19-28
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2012 Volume 10 Issue 3 Pages 19-28
This study was designed to investigate whether salivary α-amylase activity (sAA) is useful to evaluate degree of stress in human. Seven healthy female subjects (27.9 ± 8.7years, 21-47years) participated in this study. Unpleasant and pleasant stimulations were applied to the subjects. The unpleasant stimulation was mental arithmetic calculation (addition & subtraction of 2-3 figures) for 10 minutes, and the pleasant stimulation was footbath for 10 minutes. sAA, ECG, skin conductance (SC) were measured to evaluate autonomic nervous function and visual analogue scale (VAS) was used as subjective sensation.
As a result, sAA, heart rate (HR), SC and VAS showed significant increases during mental arithmetic calculation compared with them before calculation. Furthermore, sAA decreased significantly during footbath. There were significant correlations between sAA and HR, SC or VAS (rs=0.631-0.798). In conclusion, it was suggested that sAA must be a useful marker to evaluate degree of stress as the other autonomic nervous function.
