Wearable Physiological Stress Monitoring System—A Proof-of-Concept Study

Monitoring physiological responses to stressors is critical for both mental and physical health management. Different methods of physiological monitoring can early detect and prevent onset of mental disorders. Various methods and tools are commercially available to assess physiological parameters such as smartwatches and smartphones. However, only a few are used specifically for stress detection purposes. Moreover, in general, research on emotions and physiological stress is performed traditionally in a lab environment, causing results to not reflect accurately in real life, despite various sensors being used. In this paper, we design a proof-of-concept wearable stress monitoring system that assesses physiological responses to common stressors—physical activity thermal pain. The proposed stress monitoring system consists of two sensors, a pulse sensor, and a skin conductivity sensor. An early feasibility study has been carried out with multiple sensor locations implemented and analyzed including the finger, wrist and ankle. Various stressor conditions such as rest, thermal pain and physical activity were carried out. Compared to being at rest, the pulse rate and skin conductance increased following physical activity. These initial findings warrant further studies involving a larger sample size and broader stressor conditions.