PMID- 25780358
OWN - NLM
STAT- PubMed-not-MEDLINE
DCOM- 20150317
LR  - 20201001
IS  - 1658-3639 (Print)
IS  - 1658-3639 (Linking)
VI  - 8
IP  - 4
DP  - 2014 Oct
TI  - Effects of chocolate intake on Perceived Stress; a Controlled Clinical Study.
PG  - 393-401
AB  - BACKGROUND: Cocoa polyphenols have been shown to reduce stress in highly 
      stressed, as well as normal healthy individuals, we wondered whether commercially 
      available chocolate could reduce perceived stress in medical students or not, so 
      we decided to conduct this study. METHODS: Sixty students were divided into 3 
      groups (10 males + 10 females/group): i) Dark chocolate (DC) ii) Milk chocolate 
      (MC) iii) White chocolate (WC). Subjects answered a PSS-10 (Perceived Stress 
      Scale) questionnaire at baseline and after consumption of chocolate (40 g/day) 
      for 2 weeks. Data were analyzed by using Microsoft Excel and SPSS version 20. 
      Descriptive analyses were conducted. Means were compared across the study groups 
      by One-Way ANOVA and within the same group by paired 't' test. RESULTS: Mean 
      stress scores compared between the groups by ANOVA revealed statistically not 
      significant differences before (F =0.505; P=0.606) and after chocolate 
      consumption (F=0.188; P=0.829). Paired 't' test compared stress scores means 
      before and after chocolate supplementation within the same group and exhibited 
      statistically significant decrease in DC (t = 2.341; p value = 0.03) and MC (t = 
      3.302; p value = 0.004) groups. Mean stress scores decreased, on average, by 
      approximately 2 and 3 points in DC and MC groups, respectively, at 95% Confidence 
      Interval. The difference was more evident and statistically significant in female 
      students as compared to the males. CONCLUSION: Consumption of 40 g of Dark and 
      Milk chocolate daily during a period of 2 weeks appear to be an effective way to 
      reduce perceived stress in females.
FAU - Al Sunni, Ahmed
AU  - Al Sunni A
AD  - Department of Physiology, College of Medicine, University of Dammam, Saudi 
      Arabia.
FAU - Latif, Rabia
AU  - Latif R
AD  - Department of Physiology, College of Medicine, University of Dammam, Saudi 
      Arabia.
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
PL  - Saudi Arabia
TA  - Int J Health Sci (Qassim)
JT  - International journal of health sciences
JID - 101528042
PMC - PMC4350893
OTO - NOTNLM
OT  - Chocolate
OT  - Controlled Clinical Study
OT  - Medical Students
OT  - Perceived Stress
EDAT- 2015/03/18 06:00
MHDA- 2015/03/18 06:01
PMCR- 2014/10/01
CRDT- 2015/03/18 06:00
PHST- 2015/03/18 06:00 [entrez]
PHST- 2015/03/18 06:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2015/03/18 06:01 [medline]
PHST- 2014/10/01 00:00 [pmc-release]
AID - ijhs-8-4-393 [pii]
PST - ppublish
SO  - Int J Health Sci (Qassim). 2014 Oct;8(4):393-401.