Abstract
Stress plays an important role in the development of mental illness, and an increasing number of studies is trying to detect moments of perceived stress in everyday life based on physiological data gathered using ambulatory devices. However, based on laboratory studies, there is only modest evidence for a relationship between self-reported stress and physiological ambulatory measures. This descriptive systematic review evaluates the evidence for studies investigating an association between self-reported stress and physiological measures under daily life conditions. Three databases were searched for articles assessing an association between self-reported stress and cardiovascular and skin conductance measures simultaneously over the course of at least a day. We reviewed findings of 36 studies investigating an association between self-reported stress and cardiovascular measures with overall 135 analyses of associations between self-reported stress and cardiovascular measures. Overall, 35% of all analyses showed a significant or marginally significant association in the expected direction. The most consistent results were found for perceived stress, high-arousal negative affect scales, and event-related self-reported stress measures, and for frequency-domain heart rate variability physiological measures. There was much heterogeneity in measures and methods. These findings confirm that daily-life stress-dynamics are complex and require a better understanding. Choices in design and measurement seem to play a role. We provide some guidance for future studies.
Highlights
Stress is one of the largest environmental risk factors for mental illness
Our search results identified only two studies reporting associations with self-reported stress and the level of skin conductance as a physiological variable [35, 36]. Since we considered this too few to draw any meaningful conclusions, this systematic review focuses only on studies investigating the association between self-reported stress and cardiovascular measures (36 studies)
This systematic review shows that daily-life self-reports of stress and cardiovascular measures were associated in 28% of analyses (35% when including marginally significant findings)
Summary
Stress is one of the largest environmental risk factors for mental illness. According to diathesis-stress models, prolonged exposure to stressors can lead to severe mental illness in vulnerable individuals [1,2,3]. An individual’s affective reactivity to these minor stressors is thought to reflect an underlying risk of developing mental illness. In line with this theory, diary studies have indicated that increased affective reactivity to daily hassles mediates the effect of childhood adversity on psychopathology [5,6,7]. Increased affective reactivity to daily stressors has been associated with a number of mental illnesses [8,9,10,11,12], making it an important indicator of mental health. Stress plays an important role in the development of mental illness, and an increasing number of studies is trying to detect moments of perceived stress in everyday life based on physiological data gathered using ambulatory devices. This descriptive systematic review evaluates the evidence for studies investigating an association between self-reported stress and physiological measures under daily life conditions
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