Assessment of stress hormone and perceived stress scale among undergraduate at UiTM Puncak Alam / Haslina Hilmee

Stress is a common condition experienced by university and college students, but, if the amount is beyond expectation, it might interfere with daily activities and produce negative effects in academic, emotional or health aspect (Siti Maisharah, Sabariah Noor et al. 2011 ). To determine the concentration of cortisol and salivary alpha amylase (sAA) amongst undergraduate in UiTM Puncak Alam. To determine the association between perceived stress scale and hormone concentration. This cross sectional study was carried out on Environmental Health and Safety (ENV), Medical Imaging (Ml), and Nursing undergraduate students from Faculty of Health Sciences, UiTM Puncak Alam, Malaysia. Thirty students were voluntarily participated in this study consisted 10 persons for each courses. There were fifteen female and fifteen male, aged nineteen to twenty-five years old. Each person was sampled two times on weekdays and weekend. P value for salivary cortisol are significant difference, however sAA not significant between condition. For gender and type of courses the both hormone were not significant. Relationship between socio demographic factors and stress development also not significant. There are no association between PSS and hormone. Undergraduate perceived a higher level of stress on weekdays compared on weekend based on the concentration of salivary cortisol. These salivary biomarkers can be possible assessment tool in recognizing students that experienced stress during examination and perform poorly due to inability to handle with stress