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Wearable sensor may help to assess stress in healthcare workers

Date:
June 3, 2020
Source:
Wiley
Summary:
A wearable biosensor may help monitor stress experienced by healthcare professionals, according to a new study.
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A wearable biosensor may help monitor stress experienced by healthcare professionals, according to a study published in Physiological Reports.

In the study of 12 healthy male volunteers, a wearable biosensor that is placed on the chest, called the VitalScout, provided an accurate assessment of physiological parameters -- heart rate and respiration rate -- that are used to calculate stress. Furthermore, the biosensor's metrics correlated strongly to those obtained using breathing analyses, and they could discriminate changes associated with stress from changes related to increased physical activity.

"A high prevalence of stress and burnout has been reported in healthcare professionals, however, the current tools utilized to quantify such metrics like smart watches or questionnaires are not in keeping with doctors' busy lifestyles and do not comply with infection prevention policies," said senior author Prof. Damian M. Bailey, PhD, of the University of South Wales, in the UK. "Given that increased stress can subsequently impact both the healthcare profession and the patient in care, we believe the wearable biosensor used in this study is a useful tool to monitor and manage stress experienced by healthcare professionals."


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Materials provided by Wiley. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


Journal Reference:

  1. Luke Hopkins, Benjamin Stacey, David B. T. Robinson, Osian P. James, Christopher Brown, Richard J. Egan, Wyn G. Lewis, Damian M. Bailey. Consumer‐grade biosensor validation for examining stress in healthcare professionals. Physiological Reports, 2020; 8 (11) DOI: 10.14814/phy2.14454

Cite This Page:

Wiley. "Wearable sensor may help to assess stress in healthcare workers." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 3 June 2020. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/06/200603132533.htm>.
Wiley. (2020, June 3). Wearable sensor may help to assess stress in healthcare workers. ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 18, 2024 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/06/200603132533.htm
Wiley. "Wearable sensor may help to assess stress in healthcare workers." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/06/200603132533.htm (accessed March 18, 2024).

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