Can Consumer Wearables Provide Information for Stress Measurements?

Abstract

Psychiatric diagnoses are growing as the most common reason for people in Sweden to leave in sick from work, and within this category, stress-related health problems is the largest. At the same time, a market of wearables is exploding with new ways to keep track of health. What if these consumer products could be used in the work of preventing stress? This study is an investigation in the potential use of two different commercial smart watches for recording stress levels on individual and organizational basis. The test products have gone through three substudies, to see what they can measure, how accurate they are and what experiences they provide the user, and thus find out if they can serve as stress trackers or not. It was found that both devices managed to track changes in heart rate when a person sitting still was exposed to stress. Secondly, a link was found between the amount of deep sleep and a stress value that was presented by the Garmin watch. Single stress events presented in a diagram on the mobile application could also be correlated with moments of high self-perceived stress. A user experience test resulted in overall poor scores for the test products, although Fitbit was significantly better than Garmin in attractiveness and stimulation. Overall, the watches do provide approved accuracy in measuring heart rate, but it takes more than that to track stress in an effective way. It is crucial to also have a feature that makes calculations between heart rate and physical activity. This led to the conclusion that wearables with integrated stress features can be a useful tool to monitor stress, as long as the information is presented in an appropriate way for the user - a combination of technology and good design.

Abstract (Swedish)

Psykiska diagnoser ökar och är den vanligaste orsaken till sjukskrivning i Sverige. Inom denna kategori är stress den mest förekommande. Samtidigt finns en växande marknad av wearables med nya sätt att hålla koll på hälsan. Tänk om dessa kunde komma till användning vid förebyggandet av stress. Denna studie är en undersökning av två kommersiella smarta klockor och deras potential att användas som stressmätare, både på individuell och organisatorisk nivå. Testprodukterna har genomgått tre delstudier där mätnoggrannhet, utbudet av funktioner och användarupplevelser har utvärderats. Resultatet visade att klockorna lyckades mäta signifikanta skillnader i puls när en stillasittande person blev utsatt för stress. Det hittades också en länk mellan mängden djupsömn och en stressfunktion som fanns att tillgå i Garmin-klockan. Enskilda tidpunkter med högt stressvärde kunde också kopplas till stunder då den självupplevda stressen var hög. Ett användarupplevelsetest resulterade i tämligen svaga poäng för de båda testprodukterna, men i två av kategorierna, attractiveness och stimulation, visade det sig emellertid att Fitbit-klockan var signifikant bättre än Garmin-klockan. Sammanfattningsvis får klockorna godkänt i noggrannhet vid mätning av hjärtfrekvens, men det krävs mer än så för att spåra och mäta stress på ett effektivt sätt. För att göra det krävs också en funktion som gör beräkningar mellan hjärtrytm och fysisk aktivitet. Detta ledde till slutsatsen att smarta klockor med en inbyggd stressfunktion kan vara ett hjälpsamt verktyg vid stressmätning, så länge informationen presenteras på ett lämpligt sätt för användaren - en kombination mellan teknik och bra design.

Popular Abstract

Today, stress is the most common reason for sick leave in Sweden. In the meanwhile, wearables keeping track on people’s health are becoming more and more popular. What if these two could be combined? What if objective, concrete measurements could help to prevent stress and make people healthier? This was the essential question forming the starting point of a recent study, summarized in this article.

• author: Törnell, Emilia
• supervisor: Johanna Persson
• organization: Ergonomics and Aerosol Technology
• alternative title: Kan smarta klockor användas för att mäta stress?
• course: MAMM01 20191
• year: 2019
• type: H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
• subject: Technology and Engineering
• keywords: Wearables, Heart rate, Accuracy, Feature, Effective, User experience.
• language: English
• additional info: Populärvetenskaplig sammanfattning; Can Commercial Smart Watches Measure Stress?; Today, stress is the most common reason for sick leave in Sweden. In the meanwhile, wearables keeping track on people’s health are becoming more and more popular. What if these two could be combined? What if objective, concrete measurements could help to prevent stress and make people healthier? This was the essential question forming the starting point of a recent study, summarized in this article.; In Sweden, sick leave due to stress more than doubled from 2011 to 2017. The awareness is there – we know that we are stressed, but there is no room for doing something about it. Keeping down the amount of stress is up to employees themselves. Things need to be done at work, and if you feel stressed about it, you probably did not do your planning right.; A positive thing is that today, we talk more about mental health and stress than we did before, but obviously, that is not enough to defeat it. Hence, the purpose of the study was to see if there is a simple and concrete way to prevent stress by first identifying where and when people are stressed.; By testing two commercial products on the market, Fitbit Charge 3 and Garmin vivosport, understanding of how well they (and thus other similar wearables) could serve as stress trackers, by making use of heart rate data, was reached. The result was that both test products, with their simple way to measure heart rate, were good enough to spot significant changes in heart rate when the user was exposed to stress.; However, since heart rate peaks can have many reasons such as physical activity, using only heart rate was not enough to tell if a person was stressed or not. One of the watches, Garmin vivosport, had its own stress function combining heart rate and movement, a feature that proved to work, not only in arranged conditions, but in real life situations.; The technical performance is one thing, but what do people think about wearbles? From a UX (user experience) test, it was found that the test participants, who had no previous experience of wearables, were a bit doubtful in their attitude towards the test products, but still the average scores in the six categories attractiveness, perspicuity, efficiency, dependability, stimulation and novelty, were positive for both products (scale -3 to 3).; To summarize, smart watches with its own integrated stress function, can be appropriate for stress tracking, but although one of the products in this study has this kind of feature, the low scores in UX, raises the idea that there might be other, better alternatives on the market. However, the point is not to tell if a specific product is good enough or not, but to get a general idea about wearables in the purpose of tracking and preventing stress. That question has been answered, it is possible and there are probably several alternatives to do it.; The results in the study are useful for leaders who want to create a healthier environment for their employees. If critical environments or situations could be identified by keeping track on people’s stress levels, maybe these environments could be modified into something more sustainable.
• id: 8985018
• date added to LUP: 2019-06-18 13:28:35
• date last changed: 2019-06-18 13:28:35