Effect of Twenty-eight-day Gum Chewing on the Levels of Stress in Elementary School Children

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  • 28日間のガム咀嚼が小学生のストレスに与える影響

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The effect of regular gum chewing on psychological status in children is unknown. This study examines the effect of gum chewing for 28 days on the stress levels of healthy elementary school children. In this crossover study, we assigned 64 children to two groups randomly and requested them to perform the gum chewing intervention. The intervention was to chew gum, twice a day for 28 days. We encouraged the children to chew the gum for five min at a time. The children were requested to complete a questionnaire related to lifestyle for baseline assessment. The Stress Response Scale for Children (SRS-C) was used as a main outcome measure at the baseline, 4-week, and 8-week assessments. The levels of stress of the children who thought that they chewed diet well were significantly lower than those of the children who thought that they did not chew diet well (p<.05). The children who thought that they were in good health felt significantly less stress than did the children who thought that they were not in good health (p<.05). There was no significant difference between the groups in stress scores at all assessment points. The levels of stress of the overall subjects were changed significantly throughout the 8-weeks (p<.05). In conclusion, the levels of stress may be related to lifestyle, whereas the stress-reducing effect of the 28-day gum chewing was not clear.

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