The measurement of heart rate, posture, and motion in the study of psychological stress

It is a commonly held hypothesis that psychological stress is associated with arterial disease and its clinical consequences, such as myocardial infarction and cerebral stroke. An important mechanism is though to be the effects of acute stress on the cardiovascular system. Many studies have shown that acute laboratory stressors, such as difficult mental arithmetic or playing video games are associated with marked increases in blood pressure and heart rate in some people. If such increases are of significance in arterial disease then the must also occur in the same people to a significant extent in everyday life. This has been investigated in a series of studies all of which use the same paradigm. Subjects undergo a series of laboratory stress tasks and then a cardiovascular measure (usually heart rate) and control measures (such as activity) are taken over a normal day. Subjects complete diaries every 30 minutes in which they report on their mood and the stresses they are experiencing. The author then seeks to determine if the cardiovascular response to laboratory stress correlates with measures of cardiovascular responsiveness in real life. In implementing this paradigm the author has had to address a number of interesting measurement and analytic issues