Key result
Acute social stress increases LF and HF heart rate variability across healthy cohorts.
Why the study?
Real-time stress monitoring could enable early self-intervention, but it was unclear whether heart rate variability changes could predict acute stress responses across different cohorts or whether baseline stress levels affect these changes.
Does the change in heart rate variability and heart rate measured by wearables predict the response to acute stress?
Cross-Sectional (n=60)
Does the change in heart rate variability and heart rate measured by wearables predict the response to acute stress?
Using heart rate variability from wearables to detect acute stress requires adjusting for an individual's baseline resting anxiety and stress levels.
Answers are grounded in this paper and cite their sources.
Baseline anxiety requires adjustment when interpreting wearable HRV changes with acute stress; leaves open predictive utility for clinical monitoring.
Stress is an inherent part of the normal human experience. Although, for the most part, this stress response is advantageous, chronic, heightened, or inappropriate stress responses can have deleterious effects on the human body. It has been suggested that individuals who experience repeated or prolonged stress exhibit blunted biological stress responses when compared to the general population. Thus, when assessing whether a ubiquitous stress response exists, it is important to stratify based on resting levels in the absence of stress. Research has shown that stress that causes symptomatic responses requires early intervention in order to mitigate possible associated mental health decline and personal risks. Given this, real-time monitoring of stress may provide immediate biofeedback to the individual and allow for early self-intervention. This study aimed to determine if the change in heart rate variability could predict, in two different cohorts, the quality of response to acute stress when exposed to an acute stressor and, in turn, contribute to the development of a physiological algorithm for stress which could be utilized in future smartwatch technologies. This study also aimed to assess whether baseline stress levels may affect the changes seen in heart rate variability at baseline and following stress tasks. A total of 30 student doctor participants and 30 participants from the general population were recruited for the study. The Trier Stress Test was utilized to induce stress, with resting and stress phase ECGs recorded, as well as inter-second heart rate (recorded using a FitBit). Although the present study failed to identify ubiquitous patterns of HRV and HR changes during stress, it did identify novel changes in these parameters between resting and stress states. This study has shown that the utilization of HRV as a measure of stress should be calculated with consideration of resting (baseline) anxiety and stress states in order to ensure an accurate measure of the effects of additive acute stress.
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Chalmers et al. (2021) conducted a cross-sectional in Acute Stress (n=60). Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) vs. Resting baseline was evaluated on Change in frequency domain heart rate variability (LF and HF) during stress task compared to resting baseline. Acute stress induced by the Trier Social Stress Test significantly increased low frequency and high frequency heart rate variability from baseline in both the general population and medical student cohorts.
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