Effective prevention of stress-induced sweating and axillary malodour formation in teenagers

Abstract

Emotional sweating and malodour production represent a relevant challenge to today's antiperspirant (AP) and deodorant products as stress in everyday life increases continuously. The aim of this study was to investigate stress-induced sweating in teenagers who are known to experience various stressful situations, e.g. exams at school or job interviews. To induce emotional sweating in 20 female and 20 male adolescents (16-18 years of age), we applied the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST), considered today to be the most reliable and standardized stress protocol. In this study, we demonstrate that the TSST induces high amounts of sweat and strong axillary malodour in the tested age group. Notably, male teenagers showed significantly higher stress-induced odour scores than female subjects, although no gender differences were detected concerning other physiological stress markers. Testing of a novel deodorant/AP product developed to specifically address the needs of adolescent consumers revealed excellent deodorant and AP efficacy under the challenging conditions of the TSST.