Establishment of an evaluation method of an individual's mental and physical stress level using heart rate variability

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 22K21256
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: 0909:Sports sciences, physical education, health sciences, and related fields
• Research Institution: Ritsumeikan University
• Principal Investigator: Tanoue Yukiya 立命館大学, 立命館グローバル・イノベーション研究機構(BKC), 研究員 (70962463)
• Project Period (FY): 2022-08-31 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: 心拍変動 / 日間変動 / ストレス / 身体活動量 / 睡眠 / 心理

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The purpose of this study was to investigate an individualized method of assessing the mental and physical stress using heart rate variability. Initially, we measured heart rate variability over several days and examined intra- and inter-individual consistency. We found that heart rate variability were not consistent among individuals, while intra-individual consistency was observed, but with daily fluctuations. Therefore, we evaluated the difference from the average of heart rate variability values over several days of individuals as daily changes, and searched for factors causing daily changes in heart rate variability. We found that daily changes in heart rate variability were related to these in physical activity, sleep status, and psychological status. These results suggested the possibility of evaluating daily physical and mental stress states by individually evaluating differences from the average of heart rate variability values measured over several days.

Free Research Field

運動生理学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

心拍変動は死亡リスクやストレスとの負の関連があることから、心身の状態を簡易的に評価できる指標として期待されている。しかし、疾患以外の要因の影響も大きいことから、正常値と異常値の境界を設定することは難しく、臨床への応用は限られていた。本研究では日々の変動に着目し、個別に数日間の心拍変動の平均値を個人の基準値として設定し、平均値からの変化を評価することで、身体活動量や睡眠状態、心理状態の日々の変化とらえることができる可能性を示すことができた。このことは心拍変動評価が日常生活における心身のストレス状態を個別に把握できる手段の一つとなることが期待され、一次予防への一助になると考える。