Differences in evoked emotions, feelings and reactions to body and mouth odour

Abstract

Objective: To compare evoked emotions, feelings and reactions to body and mouth odour among undergraduates.
Methods: This questionnaire-based cross-sectional study was conducted among undergraduates of the University of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria.
Results: Nearly one-quarter of the participants reported taking into account body odour (23.3%) and mouth odour (24.7%) on meeting people on often/always basis. About half of the participants stated being very disgusted on perception of body odour (52.7%) and mouth odour (52.0%). About one-quarter (24.0%) of the participants expressed anger when in contact with someone with body or mouth odour. About two-thirds (64.5%) and 76.0% of the participants reported being slightly/very unhappy having a classmate/roomate with body or mouth odour respectively. About 12.0% and 12.7% agreed that students with body and mouth odour respectively should be expelled from the university. Assessing reactions to someone with body or mouth odour in a commercial vehicle; 13.3% versus 10.7% changed position and 7.3% versus 8.7% dropped off   the vehicle respectively. The majority of the participants felt that body odour or mouth odour negatively influence good employment potential, marriageability and marital relationship but there was no difference. Low proportion of the participants reported avoidance behaviour as their preferred way to help someone with body (10.0%) or mouth (9.3%) odour.
Conclusion: Data from this study revealed no differences in the evoked emotions, feelings, perceptions and reactions toward body and mouth odour sufferers among the participants.