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. 2019 Oct 30;7(10):e13978.
doi: 10.2196/13978.

Exploring the Time Trend of Stress Levels While Using the Crowdsensing Mobile Health Platform, TrackYourStress, and the Influence of Perceived Stress Reactivity: Ecological Momentary Assessment Pilot Study

Rüdiger Pryss  1 , Dennis John  2 , Winfried Schlee  3 , Wolff Schlotz  4 , Johannes Schobel  1 , Robin Kraft  1 , Myra Spiliopoulou  5 , Berthold Langguth  3 , Manfred Reichert  1 , Teresa O'Rourke  6 , Henning Peters  7 , Christoph Pieh  6 , Claas Lahmann  8 , Thomas Probst  6
Affiliations

Exploring the Time Trend of Stress Levels While Using the Crowdsensing Mobile Health Platform, TrackYourStress, and the Influence of Perceived Stress Reactivity: Ecological Momentary Assessment Pilot Study

Rüdiger Pryss et al. JMIR Mhealth Uhealth. .

Abstract

Background: The mobile phone app, TrackYourStress (TYS), is a new crowdsensing mobile health platform for ecological momentary assessments of perceived stress levels.

Objective: In this pilot study, we aimed to investigate the time trend of stress levels while using TYS for the entire population being studied and whether the individuals' perceived stress reactivity moderates stress level changes while using TYS.

Methods: Using TYS, stress levels were measured repeatedly with the 4-item version of the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-4), and perceived stress reactivity was measured once with the Perceived Stress Reactivity Scale (PSRS). A total of 78 nonclinical participants, who provided 1 PSRS assessment and at least 4 repeated PSS-4 measurements, were included in this pilot study. Linear multilevel models were used to analyze the time trend of stress levels and interactions with perceived stress reactivity.

Results: Across the whole sample, stress levels did not change while using TYS (P=.83). Except for one subscale of the PSRS, interindividual differences in perceived stress reactivity did not influence the trajectories of stress levels. However, participants with higher scores on the PSRS subscale reactivity to failure showed a stronger increase of stress levels while using TYS than participants with lower scores (P=.04).

Conclusions: TYS tracks the stress levels in daily life, and most of the results showed that stress levels do not change while using TYS. Controlled trials are necessary to evaluate whether it is specifically TYS or any other influence that worsens the stress levels of participants with higher reactivity to failure.

Keywords: crowdsensing; ecological momentary assessment; mHealth; pilot study; psychological stress.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest: None declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Impression of the daily assessment questionnaire (left Android; right iOS).
Figure 2
Figure 2
TrackYourStress mobile crowdsensing collection procedure.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Illustration of the interaction between time (days) of perceived stress-levels (PSS-4) and the PSRS Reactivity to Failure (RtF) subscale. (A) Estimated simple slopes at 1 SD above and below mean RtF. (B) Margins and 95 % confidence interval for the time trend of stress-levels across a range of RtF scores.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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