Impact of obesity and gender differences on electrodermal activities

The widespread use of electrodermal activity (EDA) as a measuring tool in sympathetic nervous system activity researches has resulted in a wide variety of publications on EDA. Yet, the influences of obesity and gender differences in the responses and levels of EDA have not been studied carefully. This study aims to investigate the impacts of obesity and gender differences on EDA parameters. To this end, EDA responses and levels were recorded from 36 (18 males and18 females) apparently healthy adult subjects nearly half of them are obese. EDA measures were induced by three different stimuli and the EDA responses and levels were compared as a function of obesity and gender differences for all stimuli. It was found that EDA parameters, in particular, skin conductance responses (SCRs) were significantly different between obese and non-obese subjects for both genders. In addition, it was found that the change in skin susceptance levels (SSLs) was statistically significant only among females. The investigation also showed that the gender difference has a crucial role in skin potential levels (SPLs) for obese subjects. The outcome results led to the conclusion that the phasic SCRs were strongly related to BMI, while tonic SPLs were related to gender differences.