Lifestyle, Mental Health Status and Salivary Secretion Rates

ABSTRACT

The relations between salivary variables, lifestyle and mental health status were investigated for 61 healthy female university students. The salivary secretion rates were significantly higher in the good lifestyle group compared with the poor lifestyle group. Among the 8 lifestyle items tested, “eating breakfast” and “mental stress” were significantly related to the salivary secretion rates. The present findings suggest that the acquisition of a good lifestyle is also very important from the viewpoint of the prevention of oral disease. A highly significant correlation (r=0.97; p<0.01) between the salivary cortisol levels and the cortisol secretion rates when controlled for the salivary secretion rates was also observed. This suggests that there is a high correlation between the intact salivary cortisol levels and the total cortisol quantity per unit time. Therefore, both these values can be used as a good index for the salivary cortisol determination.