Resting Heart Rate Variability Research Articles

FATIGUE SCIENCE INFORMING LONG COVID RECOVERY: A CASE STUDY

CASE SETTING 42-year-old female client referred for unmanaged long covid symptoms, six months following severe acute COVID-19 infection. Referred by an occupational therapist under Life Insurance to restore health and function for return to work (RTW). Experiencing cognitive and physical fatigue, muscular aches, breathlessness, post-exertional malaise, reduced cognitive capacity and exacerbated asthma symptoms at referral. Reduced functional capacity to perform activities of daily living and usual work duties and hours. TREATMENT/REHABILITATION PROVIDED 14 hours of exercise physiology was delivered by telehealth over nine months, during fortnightly or monthly consultations. Additional multidisciplinary collaboration occurred with occupational therapist, return to work co-ordinator, and general practitioner. The intervention consisted of educational coaching sessions on the physiology of fatigue, pacing strategies, individualised wellness strategies (sleep, mindfulness/relaxation, exercise, diet), relapse planning, and RTW planning. A commercially available wearable device obtained 24/7 biometric data, which tracked resting heart rate variability (rHRV), resting heart rate, respiratory rate, and sleep performance. rHRV objectively measured fatigue. Wellness strategies were coached from analysing the impact of client behaviours on rHRV trends. Two functional goals of housework and socialising were established. RESULTS Validated inventories measured self-reported improvements in; fatigue symptoms: 12-item SPHERE-12, range: 0-68 points [42 baseline; 4 final]; function: two 11-item patient-specific functional scale [housework, socialising], range: 0-20 points [5 baseline; 19 final]; and quality of life: 16-item quality of life scale, range: 0-112 [54 baseline; 79 final]. rHRV improved [10ms baseline, 56ms final]. RTW improved from four days/week to five days/week in her pre-disability role as a client manager. REFLECTIONS/LEARNINGS rHRV provided an objective marker of fatigue. The subject responded positively to rHRV monitoring. Real time biometric data enables individualised fatigue coaching including behaviour change, wellness and planning/pacing strategies. This approach improved fatigue and restored function to perform daily activities and RTW.

Effects of perioperative clinical hypnosis on heart rate variability in patients undergoing oncologic surgery: secondary outcomes of a randomized controlled trial.

Clinical hypnosis has been proposed for post-surgical pain management for its potential vagal-mediated anti-inflammatory properties. Evidence is needed to understand its effectiveness for post-surgical recovery. Iin this secondary outcome study, it was hypothesized that surgical oncology patients randomized to receive perioperative clinical hypnosis (CH) would demonstrate greater heart-rate variability (HRV) during rest and relaxation at a 1-month post-surgery assessment compared to a treatment-as-usual group (TAU). After REB approval, trial registration and informed consent, 92 participants were randomized to receive CH (n = 45) or TAU (n = 47). CH participants received a CH session before surgery and during post-surgical in-hospital stay HRV was assessed during rest (5 min) and relaxation (10 min) before and 1-month after surgery. Pain intensity was obtained using a 0-10 numeric rating scale pre and post 1-week and 1-month post surgery. One month after surgery, HRV was significantly higher in CH group (n = 29) during rest and relaxation (both p < 0.05, d = 0.73) than TAU group (n = 28). By contrast, rest and relaxation HRV decreased from pre- to 1-month post-surgery for the TAU (both p < 0.001, d > 0.48) but not the CH group. Pain intensity increased from pre-surgery to 1-week post-surgery (p < 0.001, d = 0.50), and decreased from 1-week to 1-month post-surgery (p = 0.005, d = 0.21) for all participants. The results suggest that hypnosis prevents the deleterious effects of surgery on HRV by preserving pre-operative vagal activity. These findings underscore the potential of clinical hypnosis in mitigating the adverse effects of surgery on autonomic function and may have significant implications for enhancing post-surgical recovery and pain management strategies. ClinicalTrials.gov, identifier (NCT03730350).

Resting Heart Rate Variability Is Positively Associated With Proneness to Guilt but not Shame in Chinese Young Adults

Abstract: A high proneness to experience shame and guilt has been associated with psychopathology. Despite their similarity, shame- and guilt-proneness have different psychological and neurobiological correlates. The present study aims to compare the physiological correlates between shame- and guilt-proneness. Resting heart rate variability (HRV), a peripheral biomarker of emotion dysregulation and psychopathology, was measured in a sample of 60 Chinese young adults with two sessions of electrocardiogram recording. Proneness to shame and guilt were measured by the Test of Self-Conscious Affect – 3. Hierarchical linear modeling indicated that guilt-proneness was positively associated with HRV while shame-proneness was not. Our findings implied that shame- and guilt-proneness have different relations with HRV. The distinct physiological relations are discussed with respect to the adaptive/maladaptive nature of shame- and guilt-proneness.

Resting heart rate but not heart rate variability is associated with the normal-weight obesity phenotype.

To determine differences in resting heart rate variability (HRV) and heart rate (HR) between young adults with normal-weight obesity (NWO) and normal-weight lean (NWL). A total of 65 normal-weight individuals (18-25 years old, 50 women, body mass index 18.5 to 24.9 kg/m2 ) were included in this cross-sectional study. Body fat percentage was determined using a whole-body dual energy x-ray absorptiometry scanner. Resting HRV and HR were assessed with the Polar RS800CX. Forty-one participants were classified as NWO and 24 NWL using cutoff points for body fat percentage (33.3% for women and 23.1% for men). There were no differences in HRV between NWO and NWL groups (all p > .05). HR was higher in NWO (mean 70 beats per minute [bpm], standard deviation [SD] 8) than in NWL adults (mean 65 bpm, SD 10), the adjusted mean difference 5 bpm (95% CI, 0 to 10 bpm). HR is a noninvasive biomarker and relatively cheap, fast, and easy to measure that could detect "apparently healthy" young individuals with an adverse cardiovascular disease risk profile despite presenting a normal body weight.

Subjective and Autonomic Arousal toward Emotional Stimuli in Preadolescents with Externalizing Problems and the Role of Explicit and Implicit Emotion Regulation.

Children and adolescents with externalizing problems show physiological hypo-reactivity toward affective stimuli, which may relate to their disruptive, antisocial, and thrill-seeking behaviors. This study examines differences in explicit and implicit emotion regulation between preadolescents with and without externalizing problems as well as the role of emotion regulation in subjective and autonomic responses to emotional stimuli. Preadolescents showing self- and other-reported externalizing psychopathology, and a control sample, without such difficulties, participated in a passive affective picture-viewing task with neutral, fearful, joyful, and sad images, while their heart rate and heart rate variability were measured. Participants also reported on their emotion regulation difficulties using the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale. Compared to controls, youths scoring high on externalizing problems (1) reported greater emotion regulation difficulties, especially a lack of emotional clarity and difficulty in controlling impulsive actions, (2) showed higher resting heart rate variability and a lower resting heart rate, suggestive of higher emotion/autonomic regulation ability, and (3) showed both subjective and physiological hypo-arousal to emotional pictures. Heart rate variability and, to a lesser degree difficulties in emotional clarity, modulated the effects of emotional pictures on subjective and physiological arousal. Findings suggest that interventions to improve emotion regulation and awareness may help to prevent externalizing problems.

Multi-ethnic variation in the ties that bind rumination and heart rate variability: Implications for health disparities.

Higher self-reported rumination, a common form of trait perseverative cognition, is linked with lower resting heart rate variability (HRV), which indicates poorer cardiac function and greater disease risk. A meta-analysis and systematic review indicated that in samples with fewer European Americans, the association of rumination with both heart rate and blood pressure was stronger. Thus, trait rumination may be more strongly associated with resting HRV among ethnically minoritized populations. The current study investigated whether differences in the association of self-reported rumination with resting HRV varied by ethnicity in a sample (N=513; Mage =19.41; 226 Women) of self-identified African Americans (n=110), Asian Americans (n=84), and European Americans (n=319). Participants completed a five-minute baseline period to assess resting HRV, followed by the Ruminative Responses Scale, which contains three facets of rumination including brooding, depressive, and reflective rumination. On average, Asian Americans reported higher levels of rumination relative to European Americans. African Americans had higher resting HRV than Asian Americans. Adjusting for covariates, higher self-reported rumination was significantly associated with lower resting HRV in both African and Asian Americans, but not significantly so in European Americans. This finding was consistent for brooding and reflective, but not depressive rumination. Overall, this study lends insight into a psychological mechanism-rumination-that may impact health disparities among ethnically minoritized individuals, contributing to an understanding of how stress gets under the skin among such minoritized populations.

On-Duty Resting Heart Rate Variability at the Fire Station Is Related to Cardiorespiratory Fitness and Physical Activity Levels in Firefighters.

The aim of the study is to measure the association between the physical activity (PA) levels and cardiorespiratory fitness on the firefighters' cardiac autonomic function at rest at the fire station. Anthropometry, heart rate variability, fitness, and PA levels were assessed at the fire station in 98 career Québec male firefighters. Partial correlations, adjusted for age, waist circumference, and perceived stress revealed that heart rate and several heart rate variability indices were significantly correlated to estimated maximal oxygen consumption and to high-intensity PA but not to moderate-intensity PA. These results suggest that both cardiorespiratory fitness and high-intensity physical training are related to the cardiac autonomic function of firefighters. Therefore, fire department should promote PA programs to improve physical fitness among firefighters.

Brain connectivity networks underlying resting heart rate variability in acute ischemic stroke

Acute strokes can affect heart rate variability (HRV), the mechanisms how are not well understood. We included 42 acute stroke patients (2–7 days after ischemic stroke, mean age 66 years, 16 women). For analysis of HRV, 20 matched controls (mean age 60.7, 10 women) were recruited. HRV was assessed at rest, in a supine position and individual breathing rhythmus for 5 min. The coefficient of variation (VC), the root mean square of successive differences (RMSSD), the powers of low (LF, 0.04–0.14 Hz) and high (HF, 0.15–0.50 Hz) frequency bands were extracted. HRV parameters were z-transformed related to age- and sex-matched normal subjects. Z-values < -1 indicate reduced HRV. Acute stroke lesions were marked on diffusion-weighted images employing MRIcroN and co-registered to a T1-weighted structural volume-dataset. Using independent component analysis (ICA), stroke lesions were related to HRV. Subsequently, we used the ICA-derived lesion pattern as a seed and estimated the connectivity between these brain regions and seven common functional networks, which were obtained from 50 age-matched healthy subjects (mean age 68.9, 27 women). Especially, LF and VC were frequently reduced in patients. ICA revealed one covarying lesion pattern for LF and one similar for VC, predominantly affecting the right hemisphere. Activity in brain areas corresponding to these lesions mainly impact on limbic (r = 0.55 ± 0.08) and salience ventral attention networks (0.61 ± 0.10) in the group with reduced LF power (z-score < -1), but on control and default mode networks in the group with physiological LF power (z-score > -1). No different connectivity could be found for the respective VC groups. Our results suggest that HRV alteration after acute stroke might be due to affecting resting-state brain networks.

Culturally compelled coping and depressive symptoms in Black Americans: Examining the role of psychophysiological regulatory capacity.

Given the culture of racism in the United States, Black Americans are often required to use culturally compelled coping (CCC) styles, such as emotional and behavioral restraint and vigilance. Although CCC is adaptive in the face of pervasive racialized stress, it may still negatively impact mental health outcomes, like depression. Studies have found that Black Americans exhibit higher resting heart rate variability (HRV)-a trait-level biomarker of self-regulatory capacity-than White Americans (Hill et al., 2015), which may reflect the additional resources that Black Americans need to regulate given experiences of racialized stress. Theoretically, this should protect against the development of mental health issues, like depression, given that lower resting HRV is typically observed in psychopathology (Beauchaine & Thayer, 2015). However, the literature is mixed on the buffering effects of greater resting HRV on psychopathology for Black Americans (Keen et al., 2015). Thus, we aimed to understand, with data collected from Black Americans between 2015 and 2018, how individual differences in resting HRV and the use of CCC, particularly restraint and vigilance, related to self-reported depressive symptoms. We found that at higher levels of resting HRV, greater use of CCC was associated with higher depressive symptoms. This suggests that CCC strategies may be detrimental to emotional well-being for those who have the capacity-as indexed by higher resting HRV-to engage in these strategies. Hence, the present study provides preliminary evidence that the ways Black Americans are often compelled to cope with racialized stress may be a path to greater depressive symptoms. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

I know why the caged bird sings: Distress tolerant individuals show greater resting state connectivity between ventromedial prefrontal cortex and right amygdala as a function of higher vagal tone

BackgroundIntolerance to psychological distress is associated with various forms of psychopathology, ranging from addiction to mood disturbance. The capacity to withstand aversive affective states is often explained by individual differences in cardiovagal tone as well as resting state connectivity of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), a region involved in the regulation of emotions and cardio-autonomic tone. However, it is unclear which brain regions involved in distress tolerance show greater resting state functional connectivity (rsFC) as a function of resting heart rate variability (HRV). MethodsOne-hundred and twenty-six adults, aged 20 to 83.5 years, were selected from a lifespan cohort at the Nathan Kline Institute-Rockland Sample. Participants' distress tolerance levels were assessed based upon performance on the Behavioral Indicator of Resiliency to Distress (BIRD) task. Artifact-free resting-state functional brain scans collected during separate sessions were used. While inside the scanner, a pulse oximeter was used to record beat-to-beat intervals to derive high-frequency heart rate variability (HF-HRV). The relationship between HF-HRV and vmPFC to whole brain functional connectivity was compared between distress tolerant (BIRD completers) and distress intolerant (BIRD non-completers). ResultsGroups did not differ in their history of psychiatric diagnosis. Higher resting HF-HRV was associated with longer total time spent on the BIRD task for the entire sample (r = 0.255, p = 0.004). After controlling for age, gender, body mass index, head motion, and gray matter volume. Distress tolerant individuals showed greater rsFC (p < 0.005 (uncorrected), k = 20) between the vmPFC and default-mode network (DMN) hubs including posterior cingulate cortex/precuneus, medial temporal lobes, and the parahippocampal cortex. As a function of higher resting HF-HRV greater vmPFC connectivity was observed with sub-threshold regions in the right amygdala and left anterior prefrontal cortex, with the former passing small volume correction, in distress tolerant versus distress intolerant individuals. ConclusionIn a lifespan sample of community-dwelling adults, distress tolerant individuals showed greater vmPFC connectivity with anterior and posterior hubs of the DMN compared to distress intolerant individuals. As a function of greater HF-HRV, distress tolerant individuals evidenced greater vmPFC with salience and executive control network hubs. These findings are consistent with deficits in neural resource allocation within a triple network resting amongst persons exhibiting behavioral intolerance to psychological distress.

Attachment insecurity, heart rate variability, and perceived social support in a diverse sample of young adults.

Psychological and physical factors are robustly associated with perceived social support. Drawing from the literature on attachment style in adults and psychophysiology, we examined the possibility that the interaction of attachment insecurity and resting heart rate variability (HRV) was associated with perceived social support in a diverse sample of young adults living in the U.S (N = 145, Mage = 20.45) that was majority Latino (n = 77). Analyses revealed three key findings. First, in the overall sample, attachment avoidance and attachment anxiety were negatively associated with perceived social support, but in the Latino sample, only attachment avoidance was negatively associated with perceived social support. Second, HRV was not associated with perceived social support in the overall sample nor in the Latino sample. Third, attachment insecurity and HRV interacted to predict perceived social support only in the Latino sample such that, for those with lower levels of HRV, attachment anxiety was positively associated with perceived social support. This study underscores the importance of examining both psychological and physiological processes with careful consideration of ethnicity/culture in order to better understand perceived social support.

The moderating effect of resting heart rate variability on the relationship between pain catastrophizing and depressed mood: an empirical study.

Previous research indicated that pain catastrophizing-a negative emotional and cognitive response toward actual or anticipated pain-could contribute to pain intensity and could be associated with depressive symptoms not just in chronic pain patients but in healthy population as well. Accumulated evidence suggests that resting heart rate variability (HRV) as a putative proxy of emotion regulation could moderate the association of self-reported pain catastrophizing and depressed mood. In the present cross-sectional study, we investigated these associations in a healthy young adult sample controlling for the effect of trait rumination. Seventy-two participants (58 females, mean age = 22.2 ± 1.79years ranging from 19 to 28years old) completed the Pain Catastrophizing Scale, the Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale and the Ruminative Response Scale. Resting HRV was measured by time domain metric of HRV, the root mean square of successive differences (RMSSD). The results showed that the relationship between pain catastrophizing and depressive symptoms is significantly moderated by resting HRV (indexed by lnRMSSD). Specifically, in participants with higher resting HRV there was no significant relationship between the two investigated variables, while in participants with relatively low or medium HRV pain catastrophizing and depressed mood showed significant positive association. The relationship remained significant after controlling for sex, age and trait rumination. These results might indicate that measuring pain catastrophizing and depressive symptoms is warranted in non-clinical samples as well and higher resting HRV could have a buffer or protective role against depressive symptoms.

Factors Associated With Sinoatrial Reinnervation After Heart Transplantation.

Factors associated with sympathetic and parasympathetic sinoatrial reinnervation after heart transplantation (HTx) are inadequately studied. Fifty transplant recipients were examined at 7 to 12 wk (index visit), 6, 12, 24, and 36 mo after HTx. Supine rest heart rate variability in the low-frequency (LF) domain (sympathetic and parasympathetic sinoatrial reinnervation) and the high-frequency (HF) domain (parasympathetic sinoatrial reinnervation) were measured repeatedly and related to selected recipient, donor, and perisurgical characteristics. We primarily aimed to identify index visit factors that affect the sinoatrial reinnervation process. Secondarily, we examined overall associations between indices of reinnervation and repeatedly measured recipient characteristics to generate new hypotheses regarding the consequences of reinnervation. LF and HF variability increased time dependently. In multivariate modeling, a pretransplant diagnosis of nonischemic cardiomyopathy (P = 0.038) and higher index visit handgrip strength (P = 0.028) predicted improved LF variability. Recipient age, early episodes of rejection, and duration of extracorporeal circulation were not associated with indices of reinnervation. Study average handgrip strength was positively associated with LF and HF variability (respectively, P = 0.005 and P = 0.029), whereas study average C-reactive protein was negatively associated (respectively, P = 0.015 and P = 0.008). Indices of both sympathetic and parasympathetic sinoatrial reinnervation increased with time after HTx. A pretransplant diagnosis of nonischemic cardiomyopathy and higher index visit handgrip strength predicted higher indices of mainly sympathetic reinnervation, whereas age, rejection episodes, and duration of extracorporeal circulation had no association. HTx recipients with higher indices of reinnervation had higher average handgrip strength, suggesting a link between reinnervation and improved frailty. The more reinnervated participants had lower average C-reactive protein, suggesting an inhibitory effect of reinnervation on inflammation, possibly through enhanced function of the inflammatory reflex. These potential effects of reinnervation may affect long-term morbidity in HTx patients and should be scrutinized in future research.

Resting heart rate variability and emotion regulation difficulties: Comparing Asian Americans and European Americans

Asian Americans and European Americans differ in emotion regulation (ER), particularly regarding strategies utilized to adaptively engage in ER. Resting heart rate variability (HRV), a biomarker of ER ability, is suggested to differ between Asian Americans and European Americans, but evidence for such differences has been inconsistent. Yet, research has not considered how Asian Americans and European Americans might differ in the well-established link between resting HRV and ER difficulties, which might lend a better understanding of such inconsistencies. In 374 college-aged individuals (66 Asian Americans; 311 European Americans; 190 women; mean age = 19.3 years [Min. 18, Max 38]), we examined if ethnicity moderated the link between resting HRV and self-reported ER difficulties. Resting HRV was obtained during a 5-min resting-baseline period, and ER difficulties were assessed using the Difficulties in ER Scale, which contained six facets of ER difficulties. Adjusting for gender and body mass index, moderation analyses showed a stronger association between resting HRV and ER difficulties in Asian Americans compared to European Americans. When examining facets of ER, ethnicity moderated only the link between resting HRV and difficulties in accessing ER strategies when facing negative emotions. At lower levels of HRV, Asian Americans reported greater difficulties in ER relative to European Americans. This effect diminished and trended in the opposite direction among those with higher HRV. In sum, these results provide novel evidence that higher resting HRV might be particularly important for adaptive ER among Asian Americans – a marginalized ethnic group – in the U.S.

Comparison of cardiac autonomic functions in elite endurance athletes and non-athletic healthy population: A cross-sectional study

Objectives: Long-term endurance training in elite endurance athletes (EEA) is known to affect the autonomic function by increasing the vagal tone which reflects in resting heart rate variability (HRV) but does this high resting vagal tone also affects the post-exercise heart rate recovery (HRR) remains unknown. Post-exercise HRR is used to prescribe and monitor athletic training. Hence, the aim was to determine HRR after maximal exercise among EEA and non-athletics healthy (NAH) populations and correlate it with resting HRV. Materials and Methods: Fifteen EEA and 15 NAH active male subjects of &gt;18 years participated in this study. The resting HRV was measured with a continuous lead II electrocardiogram in the supine position for 10 min. The incremental exercise testing was done and post-exercise HRR data were collected. Results: In time domain analysis, average RR, median RR, root mean square of sequential deviations and percentage of successive interval difference larger than 50 ms were significantly higher, whereas the average heart rate was significantly lower in the EEA group. In the frequency domain analysis, low-frequency power–normalised units (LFnu), and low frequency (LF)/high frequency (HF) was significantly lower while high-frequency power––normalised units were significantly higher in the EEA group. The resting HRV indices did not correlate to HRR in both groups. Conclusion: The athletes have better adapted cardiac autonomic function as compared to the NAH group with higher resting vagal tone and better HRR. HRR did not correlate with resting HRV in either group, suggesting that parasympathetic activity causing a rapid decrease in heart rate post-exercise is independent of basal parasympathetic tone.

The moderating effect of resting heart rate variability on the relationship between internet addiction tendency and brain morphology.

Previous neuroimaging studies have investigated brain morphology associated with internet addiction tendency (IAT) in healthy subjects. However, whether resting vagally-mediated heart rate variability (HRV) exerting influences on the association of IAT and brain morphology remains unclear. This study used voxel-based morphometry (VBM) and multiple regression analyses to assess the interaction effect of IAT and resting vagally-mediated HRV on regional grey matter volumes in 82 healthy subjects. To further illustrate the observed interaction effect, the moderated hierarchical regression analysis was performed. The results showed that resting vagally-mediated HRV moderated the relationship between IAT scores and grey matter volume (GMV) in the precuneus and cerebellum. Specifically, individuals with higher resting vagally-mediated HRV showed a significant positive relationship between IAT scores and GMV in the precuneus, whereas individuals with lower resting vagally-mediated HRV showed a significant negative relationship between IAT scores and GMV in the precuneus. In addition, IAT scores were negatively correlated with GMV in the cerebellum among individuals with lower resting vagally-mediated HRV, but not among individuals with higher resting vagally-mediated HRV. These findings have demonstrated a moderating role of resting vagally-mediated HRV on the association of IAT and brain morphology.

The effect of chronic exercise training and acute exercise on power spectral analysis of heart rate variability.

Moderate to vigorous physical activity performed regularly is cardioprotective and reduces all-cause mortality, concomitant with increased resting heart rate variability (HRV). However, there are contradictory reports regarding the effects of chronic and acute exercise on nocturnal HRV in those performing exercise well-beyond physical activity guidelines. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to compare the power spectral analysis components of HRV in middle-aged endurance athletes (EA) and recreationally active individuals (REC) and explore acute exercise effects in EA. A total of 119 EA (52, 49-57 years) and 32 REC (56, 52-60 years) were recruited to complete 24h Holter monitoring (GE SEER 1000) in the absence of exercise. Fifty one EA (52, 49-57 years) then underwent 24h Holter monitoring following an intense bout of endurance exercise. Power spectral HRV analysis was completed hourly and averaged to quantify morning (1000-1200h), evening (1900-2100h), and nocturnal (0200-0400h) HRV. EA had greater very low frequency (VLF) and low frequency (LF) (both p< 0.001) compared to REC. LF/high frequency (HF) was greater in EA at 0200-0400h (p=0.04). Among all participants, the change in HR and HF from 1000-1200 to 0200-0400h was negatively correlated (r=-0.47, p< 0.001). Following acute exercise in EA, only nocturnal HRV was assessed. VLF (p< 0.001) and HF (p=0.008) decreased, while LF/HF increased (p=0.02). These results suggest that in EA, both long-term and acute exercises increase nocturnal sympathovagal activity through an increase in LF and decrease in HF, respectively. Further work is required to understand the mechanism underlying reduced nocturnal HRV in middle-aged EA and the long-term health implications.

Maternal Social Loneliness Detection Using Passive Sensing Through Continuous Monitoring in Everyday Settings: Longitudinal Study.

Maternal loneliness is associated with adverse physical and mental health outcomes for both the mother and her child. Detecting maternal loneliness noninvasively through wearable devices and passive sensing provides opportunities to prevent or reduce the impact of loneliness on the health and well-being of the mother and her child. The aim of this study is to use objective health data collected passively by a wearable device to predict maternal (social) loneliness during pregnancy and the postpartum period and identify the important objective physiological parameters in loneliness detection. We conducted a longitudinal study using smartwatches to continuously collect physiological data from 31 women during pregnancy and the postpartum period. The participants completed the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) loneliness questionnaire in gestational week 36 and again at 12 weeks post partum. Responses to this questionnaire and background information of the participants were collected through our customized cross-platform mobile app. We leveraged participants' smartwatch data from the 7 days before and the day of their completion of the UCLA questionnaire for loneliness prediction. We categorized the loneliness scores from the UCLA questionnaire as loneliness (scores≥12) and nonloneliness (scores<12). We developed decision tree and gradient-boosting models to predict loneliness. We evaluated the models by using leave-one-participant-out cross-validation. Moreover, we discussed the importance of extracted health parameters in our models for loneliness prediction. The gradient boosting and decision tree models predicted maternal social loneliness with weighted F1-scores of 0.897 and 0.872, respectively. Our results also show that loneliness is highly associated with activity intensity and activity distribution during the day. In addition, resting heart rate (HR) and resting HR variability (HRV) were correlated with loneliness. Our results show the potential benefit and feasibility of using passive sensing with a smartwatch to predict maternal loneliness. Our developed machine learning models achieved a high F1-score for loneliness prediction. We also show that intensity of activity, activity pattern, and resting HR and HRV are good predictors of loneliness. These results indicate the intervention opportunities made available by wearable devices and predictive models to improve maternal well-being through early detection of loneliness.

The effects of HeartMath Heart Lock‐In on elementary students' HRV and self‐reported emotion regulation skills

AbstractIt is important to address social and emotional concerns early on, as they can adversely affect learning at all levels. The classroom is an ideal context for fostering healthy social and emotional development. For example, emotion regulation can be reinforced through simple daily practices within schools. The current applied research project was in collaboration with multiple community partners and assessed the effectiveness of a classroom‐based HeartMath practice (Heart Lock‐In) on resting heart rate variability (HRV) and self‐reported emotional benefits in elementary students. This repeated‐measures study was conducted in central Alberta, Canada, in 2020 and involved obtaining pre–post HRV measurements from N = 24 grade five students who participated in a teacher‐led 5‐min Heart Lock‐In (like loving‐kindness—radiating love to oneself and others) daily for 4 weeks. We hypothesized that the practice would increase resting HRV compared to a 4‐week relaxation control. Qualitative questions were included to capture perceptions of the utility and impact of the practice. Univariate analysis of variance revealed that the HeartMath intervention significantly increased HRV compared to the relaxation control. Students reported enhanced emotional stability, feeling more positive about themselves, and improved interpersonal relationships. They expressed that the practice gives them better focus, which helps us to improve their performance (e.g., in academics and athletics). These findings provide evidence that a simple and short HeartMath ER practice can be practical for school educators, administrators, and counselors to implement in the classroom.

Examination of Yoga on Heart Rate Variability and Mindfulness Levels

The aim of the study is to examine the effect of yoga practices on heart rate variability and mindfulness levels. A total of 52 women who did and didn’t do yoga (Mean age= 30.25±5.58) voluntarily participated in the study. Heart rate variability was measured using the HeartMath brand emWave Pro+. Using the Emwave Pro device, the resting heart rate variability measurements were taken for 5 minutes in the sitting position. For this study, SDNN, RMSSD, MeanHR, LF/HF, and coherence parameters were evaluated. The Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS) was used to determine the mindfulness levels of the participants. According to the findings, a statistically significant difference was found in favor of the yoga group in the levels of SDNN (p&amp;gt;.005), meanHR (p&amp;gt;.020), and awareness (p&amp;gt;.041)”. There is no significant difference in RMSSD (P =.050), LF/HF (P &amp;lt;.232), and Coherence (P &amp;lt;.718) parameters. As a result, yoga practices increase HRV. It is also an application that helps women to improve their mindfulness level.