MODULATIONS OF SALIVARY CORTISOL LEVELS, BLOOD PRESSURE, AND HEART RATE AFTER HUMAN-DOG INTERACTIONS IN UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA

Abstract

Undergraduate student stress has increased over the last few decades. With it becoming progressively more competitive to matriculate into graduate/professional schools, or find a job post-grad, college students are experiencing heightened stress primarily due to worries about future plans, academic rigor, and busy workloads. Stress is a natural physiological response to a stimulus that the body perceives as dangerous. While thought of as negative, a proper stress response is vital to human life. When encountering threatening stimuli, the body releases hormones including cortisol, epinephrine, and norepinephrine as signalers to react. When this response is controlled, the body adapts to stressful encounters and reacts accordingly. When this response undergoes hyperactivity, the body is negatively affected and conditions including Generalized Anxiety Disorder and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder can arise. To mitigate this, students report methods such as physical activity and interacting with supporting family/friends. Interestingly, students also report that interacting with animals have helped mitigate stress. Studies have shown that interactions with therapy dogs reduced participant stress in military veterans, nursing students, and college students. This study will investigate whether these interactions have modulations on physiological stress variables including salivary cortisol concentrations, heart rates, and blood pressures to determine their potential to mitigate stress.