Survey study, 2025
Can a stress marker in saliva and stress levels predict PMS in teenage girls?
In this small study, both stress and a saliva stress marker (alpha-amylase) were linked to PMS, but together they only predicted PMS with moderate accuracy, so they are not yet reliable PMS tests on their own.
What they did
Researchers studied 62 adolescents, 31 with PMS and 31 without. PMS was measured with a questionnaire (SPAF), stress with another questionnaire (K10), and a stress-related enzyme in saliva (salivary alpha-amylase, sAA) was measured in a lab (ELISA). They checked how these three things related to each other using correlation tests, a prediction accuracy test (ROC curve), and regression analysis.
What they found
Stress and PMS were significantly linked (p=0.001, r=0.66, a fairly strong connection). Saliva alpha-amylase levels and PMS were also significantly linked. Together, stress and alpha-amylase levels predicted PMS in these teens with an accuracy of 49.7%.
What it means for you
Higher stress and higher levels of this saliva marker tended to go together with more PMS symptoms in these teenagers, but the prediction accuracy of 49.7% means it is far from a reliable test on its own. The study was small (62 people) and cross-sectional, so it cannot show that stress causes PMS, only that they are linked.
62
participants
0.66
correlation between stress and PMS (r)
49.7%
accuracy of prediction
About the study
- Original title
- Linking Premenstrual Syndrome With Salivary Alpha-Amylase Levels and Stress Levels: A Cross-Sectional Study
- Authors
- Hamzah G, Arsyad A, Jusuf EC
- Journal
- Journal of family & reproductive health
- Year
- 2025
- Study design
- Survey study
- What was tested
- No treatment tested; researchers measured saliva alpha-amylase and stress scores and compared them to PMS status
- Open access
- Yes
- Read the paper
- doi.org/10.18502/jfrh.v19i3.20058
Topics
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