Abstract

In order to identify personal stress, we developed a stress index calculated by combining scores from survey and measurement. Stress survey utilized 20 questions related to physical, behavior, and psychology/emotion chosen from existing stress surveys being used in the hospital or public health center. Stress measurement score was estimated by developing a method of scoring by using the integrated values of the low frequency and high frequency components of Fourier spectrum of the hearth rate variability (HRV). A clinical trial was conducted in a general hospital to evaluate validity of the developed stress index. The stress index showed a good correlation with the existing stress survey score available in the public health center. The stress survey score showed very large variations among individuals with little correlation with age. However, the stress measurement score decreased with a large slope with age, and the age correlation coefficient was high. Therefore, we were able to observe that as age progresses, stress is accumulated and the autonomic nerve activity weakens resulting in the decrease in the stress resistance. The stress measurement score calculated in this study showed a high correlation coefficient of 0.868 with the stress index provided by Canopy7 of IEMBIO. Therefore, the stress index calculated from the employed equipment indicates stress resistance related to the autonomic nerve activity, and therefore it is distinguished from the stress index developed in this study calculated by reflecting both the current stress state through the survey and the stress resistance through the HRV measurement. (Korean J Str Res 2011;19:11∼19)

• Keywords: Stress index, Stress survey, Stress measurement, Heart rate variability;