Are standard heart rate variability measures associated with the self-perception of stress of firefighters in action?

• Type: Article in International Conference Proceedings Book
• Date: 2013

Authors

Gomes, P (Author) Other; Kaiseler, M (Author) Other; Lopes, B (Author) Other; Faria, S (Author) Other; Queiros, C (Author) Other; Coimbra, M (Author) FCUP

Conference proceedings International

Title: Proceedings of the Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, EMBS

Pages: 2571-2574

35th Annual International Conference of the IEEE-Engineering-in-Medicine-and-Biology-Society (EMBC)

Osaka, JAPAN, JUL 03-07, 2013

Indexing

ISI Web of Knowledge - 7 Citations

Scopus - 8 Citations

Scientific classification

FOS: Engineering and technology > Environmental biotechnology

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-008-FPA

DOI: 10.1109/embc.2013.6610065

Abstract (EN): Stress is a major factor for the degradation of cardiac health in first responder professionals such as firefighters. Monitoring stress during real events might be the key for controlling this problem. In this paper we inspect how standard heart rate variability (HRV) measures are associated with the self-perception of stress of firefighters in action, supported by an advanced technological solution to acquire this data. Results obtained from more than 94 hours of annotated ECG recordings of firefighters in action are promising, showing positive association with various standard HRV measures. Given the richness of the gathered data, we have also measured the association of the HRV measures with the stage of a firefighting event (pre, during, post), obtaining some interesting results that hint that the psychological impact of the post-event may be one of the most concerning situations for a firefighter, motivating further studies on this in the future.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

No. of pages: 4