Impact of Wearing Graduated Compression Stockings on Psychological and Physiological Responses during Prolonged Sitting

Masahiro Horiuchi, Chieko Takiguchi, Yoko Kirihara and Yukari Horiuchi
Additional contact information
Masahiro Horiuchi: Division of Human Environmental Science, Mt. Fuji Research Institute, Yamanashi 403-0005, Japan
Chieko Takiguchi: Division of Human Environmental Science, Mt. Fuji Research Institute, Yamanashi 403-0005, Japan
Yoko Kirihara: Division of Human Environmental Science, Mt. Fuji Research Institute, Yamanashi 403-0005, Japan
Yukari Horiuchi: Department of Childhood Education, Kyushu Sangyo University, Fukuoka 8138503, Japan

IJERPH, 2018, vol. 15, issue 8, 1-11

Abstract: We investigated the impact of wearing vs. not wearing graduated compression stockings on psychological and physiological responses in 18 healthy young people (12 men and six women) during 3 h prolonged sitting. Profiled of Mood States (POMS) scores did not show marked differences between with and without stockings. A 3 h sit significantly decreased saliva cortisol in both conditions; with no differences between conditions. Wearing stockings suppressed a subjective uncomfortable sensation (e.g., pain; fatigue; swelling) in the lower limbs, as assessed by visual analogue scale (VAS). Increase in heart rate at 1 h and 3 h was significantly greater without than with stockings. In addition, high-frequency oscillations (HF: 0.15–0.4 Hz), used as an indicator of parasympathetic nerve activity, showed higher values with than without stockings throughout the 3 h sitting period—significantly higher at 1 h. When data for both conditions were pooled pre-to-post changes in saliva cortisol were positively associated with higher uncomfortable sensations of VAS in the lower limbs and negatively associated with changes in the Vigor subscale of POMS. Collectively, these findings suggest that wearing graduated compression stockings may benefit from subjective comfort and increased parasympathetic nerve activity.

Keywords: profile of mood states; saliva cortisol; heart rate variability; visual analogue scale; subjective feelings (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/8/1710/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/8/1710/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:15:y:2018:i:8:p:1710-:d:162980

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().