School stress. Classification of the students by analitical tests

Abstract

The indicators of stress can be measured, and this way the body answers to stress are proved. Our study population consists of 90 cases, split into two groups: an elementary school level (1st. to 4th. years) and high school level (5th. to 8th. years). We quantified blood glucose, leukocytes, eosinophils, cholesterol and urinary excretion of vanilmandelic acid, a catecholamine metabolite. The periods of measurement were February and June. Once the data was normalized, we made a multivariate analysis through the cluster technique. The biologically related variables were joined together, and the one which better represented its behaviour was taken. The results show that in the elementary school group eosinophils classified students in February, and glucose did it in June. In high school level, the students? vanilmandelic acid was the discriminant variable at the periods of measurement. The results suggest that stress signs are organized at high level students.