Diurnal and weekly rhythms of health-related variables in home recordings for two months

• Published in: Physiology & behavior 2006-04, Vol.87 (4), p.650-658
• Main Authors: Tuomisto, M.T., Terho, T., Korhonen, I., Lappalainen, R., Tuomisto, T., Laippala, P., Turjanmaa, V.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Activity levels. Psychomotricity; Adult; Behavioral diary; Biological and medical sciences; Blood pressure; Blood Pressure - physiology; Body Temperature - physiology; Body Weight; Circadian Rhythm - physiology; Diagnosis, Computer-Assisted - instrumentation; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Health; Health Status Indicators; Heart Rate - physiology; Home Care Services; Home monitoring; Humans; Hurriedness; Long-term; Longitudinal Studies; Male; Medical Records; Middle Aged; Miscellaneous; Monitoring, Ambulatory - instrumentation; Monitoring, Physiologic - instrumentation; Motor activity; Psychological effort; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Psychophysiological; Reference Values; Rhythm; Sleep - physiology; Telemedicine - instrumentation; Telemedicine - methods
• ISSN: 0031-9384; 1873-507X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.physbeh.2005.12.012

Several telecare systems for long-term monitoring of the well-being of patients at home have been developed as an aid in healthcare and to reduce hospitalization costs. Most of the systems have been designed to measure only one or two variables. Because well-being is a combination of both psychological and physiological wellness, there is a need to monitor several psychophysiological variables simultaneously in out-of-hospital conditions for a long period. To understand better the variability of patients' wellness-related variables in long-term recordings, the knowledge of the normal variation in health-related variables in healthy people is necessary. In our study, 14 healthy working middle-aged men were studied daily for 24 h and periods of 50 to 79 days. The variables measured were beat-to-beat heart rate, motor activity, blood pressure, body weight, and temperature. At night respiratory frequency, time of movements, amount of quiet sleep, and ballistocardiographic respiratory variation were also measured. Heart rate variability in the waking period was calculated later (standard deviation of the 5 min average of the successive normal to normal beat to beat intervals). Daily self-reported well-being, activities, and consumption of alcohol were monitored by keeping a behavioral diary. After normalizing the physiological data, the diurnal and weekly variability was calculated for each variable. In several variables the most notable diurnal and weekly variability was found between working time and free time. In conclusion, diurnal and weekly rhythms in several wellness-related physiological and psychological variables were identified, depending on working and free-time in healthy middle-aged men.