Heart Rate Variability and Electrocardiography in Evaluating Stress

Chronic stress has been linked as a probable contributor to a number of health problems that plague the world today. Obesity, cardiovascular disease, depression, and osteoporosis are all common health risks believed to be exacerbated by stress. While it is nether realistic nor desirable to completely eliminate stress in an individual, proper stress management is important to a healthy lifestyle. Homeostasis is the primary mechanism by which stress, and the stress response, should be analyzed. Environmental factors known as stressors elicit responses from the body, which can be measured in terms of duration and magnitude. These two factors determine the homeostatic response from the body. This thesis proposes the study of heart rate variability (HRV) to measure the response of the autonomic nervous system through time domain analysis (the length of interbeat intervals) and frequency domain analysis (the differences between the lengths of consecutive interbeat intervals). Even with many possible problems, this data still represents valuable proof of concept that HRV analysis may be of use in identifying stress.