IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v19y2022i5p3132-d765820.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Salivary Morning Cortisol as a Potential Predictor for High Academic Stress Level in Dental Students: A Preliminary Study

Author

Listed:
  • Kacper Nijakowski

    (Department of Conservative Dentistry and Endodontics, Poznan University of Medical Sciences, 60-812 Poznan, Poland
    These authors contributed equally to this work.)

  • Dawid Gruszczyński

    (Student’s Scientific Group in Department of Conservative Dentistry and Endodontics, Poznan University of Medical Sciences, 60-812 Poznan, Poland
    These authors contributed equally to this work.)

  • Kacper Łaganowski

    (Student’s Scientific Group in Department of Conservative Dentistry and Endodontics, Poznan University of Medical Sciences, 60-812 Poznan, Poland)

  • Jagoda Furmańczak

    (Student’s Scientific Group in Department of Conservative Dentistry and Endodontics, Poznan University of Medical Sciences, 60-812 Poznan, Poland)

  • Alicja Brożek

    (Department of Medical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine, Poznan University of Medical Sciences, 60-806 Poznan, Poland)

  • Marcin Nowicki

    (Department of Medical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine, Poznan University of Medical Sciences, 60-806 Poznan, Poland)

  • Dorota Formanowicz

    (Department of Medical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine, Poznan University of Medical Sciences, 60-806 Poznan, Poland)

  • Anna Surdacka

    (Department of Conservative Dentistry and Endodontics, Poznan University of Medical Sciences, 60-812 Poznan, Poland)

Abstract

Students experience different levels of acute and chronic stress during the academic year. Selected salivary biochemical parameters change as a result of stress. Our preliminary study aimed to indicate possible links between alterations in the salivary biochemical parameters (such as cortisol and total antioxidant status) and different accompanying stress levels in dental students during the academic year. The study group consisted of 20 volunteer dental students at the Poznan University of Medical Sciences—both genders, aged 20–26 years. Students were asked to fill in the electronic version of the author’s survey on experiencing and coping with stress. Samples of unstimulated saliva were collected in the morning and late evening at four-time points: in the middle of the academic year, during the examination period, at the beginning of the academic year, and in the middle of the following academic year, together with a determination of currently experienced stress on the Stress Numerical Rating Scale-11. According to the circadian rhythm of cortisol secretion, morning levels of the hormone in saliva were much higher than in the evening. In evening cortisol, significant differences were observed during the studied periods—the highest level was found at the beginning of the academic year. However, the morning cortisol concentrations correlated more strongly with the declared stress levels and showed better predictability for high-stress levels. Salivary morning cortisol could be a potential marker of academic stress levels. Further studies are needed on a larger group to confirm.

Suggested Citation

  • Kacper Nijakowski & Dawid Gruszczyński & Kacper Łaganowski & Jagoda Furmańczak & Alicja Brożek & Marcin Nowicki & Dorota Formanowicz & Anna Surdacka, 2022. "Salivary Morning Cortisol as a Potential Predictor for High Academic Stress Level in Dental Students: A Preliminary Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(5), pages 1-13, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:5:p:3132-:d:765820
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/5/3132/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/5/3132/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Anuradha Batabyal & Anindita Bhattacharya & Maria Thaker & Shomen Mukherjee, 2021. "A longitudinal study of perceived stress and cortisol responses in an undergraduate student population from India," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(6), pages 1-11, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Silvia Vivarelli & Sebastiano Italia & Michele Teodoro & Manuela Pollicino & Carmen Vitello & Annalisa De Vita & Angela Alibrandi & Chiara Costa & Concettina Fenga, 2023. "Salivary Biomarkers Analysis and Neurobehavioral Assessment in Nurses Working Rotation Shifts: A Pilot Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(7), pages 1-21, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.

      Corrections

      All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:5:p:3132-:d:765820. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

      If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

      If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

      If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

      For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

      Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

      IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.