Effectiveness of toys in relieving acute stress measured by heart rate variability in young adults

Abstract

Introduction: The responses of the human body to stress are well documented. Usage of toys like slime and fidget-spinners has been a recent trend among the public to mitigate the harmful effects of stress on health. Objective: This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of slime and fidget-spinners in relieving acute stress in young adults. Methods: Thirty healthy subjects were studied. Each subject underwent phases of rest, acute stress using mental arithmetic, and stress with simultaneous usage of either slime or fidget-spinner toys. The power spectrum of short term heart rate variability (HRV) was analysed in all three phases. The values obtained were compared using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test. A p-value<0.05 is considered statistically significant. Results: Average heart rate, total power, low-frequency power (LF), high-frequency power (HF) and the LF/HF ratio were significantly raised in the mental stress phase compared to the resting phase. No statistically significant differences were found when comparing these parameters of a subject in mental stress to a subject using an either toy, except a significant increase in LF (normalised units) in the fidget-spinner experiment. Conclusion: The present study noted that usage of either toy (slime or fidget-spinner) produced no significant change in HRV parameters in a stressed subject. Based on these findings, these toys may not be advocated for the relief of acute stress since they have no significant effect on their autonomic parameters in young adults. Further studies may use parameters other than HRV to assess stress levels in an individual.