Psychophysiological Stress Assessment Among On-Duty Firefighters

• Published in: 2018 40th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC) 2018-07, Vol.2018, p.4335-4338
• Main Authors: Rodrigues, Susana, Dias, Duarte, Paiva, Joana S., Cunha, Joao P. S.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Biomedical monitoring; Electrocardiography; Fires; Heart rate variability; Physiology; Stress; Stress measurement
• ISSN: 1558-4615; 2694-0604
• DOI: 10.1109/EMBC.2018.8513250

Firefighting is a hazardous profession commonly exposed to high stress that can interfere with firefighter's health and performance. Nevertheless, on-duty stress levels quantitative evaluations are very rare in the literature. In order to investigate firefighters' occupational health in terms of stress perceptions, symptoms, and quantified physiological reactions under real-world conditions, an ambulatory assessment protocol was developed. Therefore, cardiac signal from firefighters (N =6) was continuously monitored during two shifts within a working week with a medical clinically certified equipment (VitalJacket®), allowing continuous electrocardiogram (ECG) and actigraphy measurement. Psychological data were collected with an android application, collecting potential stressful events, stress symptoms, and stress appraisal. A total of 130 hours of medical-quality ECG were collected, from which heart rate variability (HRV) metrics were extracted and analyzed. Statistical significant differences were found in some HRV metrics - AVNN, RMSSD, pNN50 and LF/HF - between events and non-events, showing higher levels of physiological stress during events (p