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Heart Rate Variability and Accelerometry as Classification Tools for Monitoring Perceived Stress Levels—A Pilot Study on Firefighters

Chronic stress is the main cause of health problems in high-risk jobs. Wearable sensors can become an ecologically valid method of stress level assessment in real-life applications. We sought to determine a non-invasive technique for objective stress monitoring. Data were collected from firefighters...

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Autores principales: Meina, Michał, Ratajczak, Ewa, Sadowska, Maria, Rykaczewski, Krzysztof, Dreszer, Joanna, Bałaj, Bibianna, Biedugnis, Stanisław, Węgrzyński, Wojciech, Krasuski, Adam
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7285091/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32429383
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s20102834
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author Meina, Michał
Ratajczak, Ewa
Sadowska, Maria
Rykaczewski, Krzysztof
Dreszer, Joanna
Bałaj, Bibianna
Biedugnis, Stanisław
Węgrzyński, Wojciech
Krasuski, Adam
author_facet Meina, Michał
Ratajczak, Ewa
Sadowska, Maria
Rykaczewski, Krzysztof
Dreszer, Joanna
Bałaj, Bibianna
Biedugnis, Stanisław
Węgrzyński, Wojciech
Krasuski, Adam
author_sort Meina, Michał
collection PubMed
description Chronic stress is the main cause of health problems in high-risk jobs. Wearable sensors can become an ecologically valid method of stress level assessment in real-life applications. We sought to determine a non-invasive technique for objective stress monitoring. Data were collected from firefighters during 24-h shifts using sensor belts equipped with a dry-lead electrocardiograph (ECG) and a three-axial accelerometer. Levels of stress experienced during fire incidents were evaluated via a brief self-assessment questionnaire. Types of physical activity were distinguished basing on accelerometer readings, and heart rate variability (HRV) time series were segmented accordingly into corresponding fragments. Those segments were classified as stress/no-stress conditions. Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) analysis showed true positive classification as stress condition for 15% of incidents (while maintaining almost zero False Positive Rate), which parallels the amount of truly stressful incidents reported in the questionnaires. These results show a firm correspondence between the perceived stress level and physiological data. Psychophysiological measurements are reliable indicators of stress even in ecological settings and appear promising for chronic stress monitoring in high-risk jobs, such as firefighting.
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spelling pubmed-72850912020-06-15 Heart Rate Variability and Accelerometry as Classification Tools for Monitoring Perceived Stress Levels—A Pilot Study on Firefighters Meina, Michał Ratajczak, Ewa Sadowska, Maria Rykaczewski, Krzysztof Dreszer, Joanna Bałaj, Bibianna Biedugnis, Stanisław Węgrzyński, Wojciech Krasuski, Adam Sensors (Basel) Article Chronic stress is the main cause of health problems in high-risk jobs. Wearable sensors can become an ecologically valid method of stress level assessment in real-life applications. We sought to determine a non-invasive technique for objective stress monitoring. Data were collected from firefighters during 24-h shifts using sensor belts equipped with a dry-lead electrocardiograph (ECG) and a three-axial accelerometer. Levels of stress experienced during fire incidents were evaluated via a brief self-assessment questionnaire. Types of physical activity were distinguished basing on accelerometer readings, and heart rate variability (HRV) time series were segmented accordingly into corresponding fragments. Those segments were classified as stress/no-stress conditions. Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) analysis showed true positive classification as stress condition for 15% of incidents (while maintaining almost zero False Positive Rate), which parallels the amount of truly stressful incidents reported in the questionnaires. These results show a firm correspondence between the perceived stress level and physiological data. Psychophysiological measurements are reliable indicators of stress even in ecological settings and appear promising for chronic stress monitoring in high-risk jobs, such as firefighting. MDPI 2020-05-16 /pmc/articles/PMC7285091/ /pubmed/32429383 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s20102834 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Meina, Michał
Ratajczak, Ewa
Sadowska, Maria
Rykaczewski, Krzysztof
Dreszer, Joanna
Bałaj, Bibianna
Biedugnis, Stanisław
Węgrzyński, Wojciech
Krasuski, Adam
Heart Rate Variability and Accelerometry as Classification Tools for Monitoring Perceived Stress Levels—A Pilot Study on Firefighters
title Heart Rate Variability and Accelerometry as Classification Tools for Monitoring Perceived Stress Levels—A Pilot Study on Firefighters
title_full Heart Rate Variability and Accelerometry as Classification Tools for Monitoring Perceived Stress Levels—A Pilot Study on Firefighters
title_fullStr Heart Rate Variability and Accelerometry as Classification Tools for Monitoring Perceived Stress Levels—A Pilot Study on Firefighters
title_full_unstemmed Heart Rate Variability and Accelerometry as Classification Tools for Monitoring Perceived Stress Levels—A Pilot Study on Firefighters
title_short Heart Rate Variability and Accelerometry as Classification Tools for Monitoring Perceived Stress Levels—A Pilot Study on Firefighters
title_sort heart rate variability and accelerometry as classification tools for monitoring perceived stress levels—a pilot study on firefighters
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7285091/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32429383
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s20102834
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