No significant difference in salivary cortisol response on the Trier Social Stress Test-Online based on coffee consumption habits.

Background: Coffee is widely consumed around the world. In Japan, it is a type of "Shikohin" (consumed for flavor, not nutrition). Several medical studies have reported the beneficial effects of coffee consumption, whereas others suggest that these beneficial effects on psychological aspects are marginal. The habit of consuming large amounts of caffeine through coffee may improve short-term resilience in stressful situations and may exhaust individuals in the long term. We hypothesized that people who habitually drink high amounts of coffee would have lower resilience scores and higher acute stress responses.

Methods: Adult Japanese men completed a questionnaire that included a resilience scale and Shikohin consumption habits. Experimental participants were recruited from the survey respondents and classified into three groups based on their coffee consumption per day: No Coffee, Low Coffee, and High Coffee. All participants were asked to join the Trier Social Stress Test-Online (TSST-OL). Subjective stress and salivary cortisol concentrations was measured at eight time points during the experiment. There were 16 participants in each group for the analysis (mean age = 46.10 years, SD = 12.58).

Results: Statistical analysis showed that both subjective stress and salivary cortisol concentrations significantly increased following TSST-OL exposure. However, there were no significant differences among the groups, and the hypotheses were not supported.

Conclusions: This study demonstrated the effectiveness and stability of the TSST-OL. Additionally, coffee consumption habits were not significantly related to resilience scale scores or acute stress responses.