A Study on Student’s Academic Stress and Psychological Characteristics Due to the Experience of Pseudo Halitosis

Abstract

This study of purpose was to compare and analyze college students academic stress and psychological characteristics according to their experience of pseudo-halitosis, excluding genuine halitosis cases. Data were analyzed using IBM SPSS ver. 25.0 (IBM Co., Armonk, NY, USA), and the Independent t-test was applied according to the experience of pseudo halitosis. The significance level of the statistical test was set to 0.05.As a result, those who had no experience of halitosis had a high awareness of subjective oral health (p< 0.05). Those who had experienced pseudo-halitosis scored 117.64 points on academic stress, which was significantly higher than those who had not experienced it (p<0.05). The scores of those who had experienced pseudo-halitosis were significantly higher in depression (p<0.05), anxiety (p<0.001), tension (p<0.05), and hostility (p<0.05). The quantitative distribution of the tongue coating of the participants (N=41) was found to be quantitatively higher in participants who had experienced pseudo-halitosis but not statistically significant (p> 0.05). Pseudo-halitosis adversely affects stress and psychological factors, and future treatment will require psychological support and encouragement. Along with the tests on stress levels and psychological factors; the characteristics and differences between the genuine halitosis and pseudo-halitosis groups need to be analyzed further.