In recent years, there has been a significant increase in the number of patients suffering from mood disorders in Japan, reaching 1.041 million in 2008. In 2014, the number of patients reached 1.116 million, the highest number recorded in the past. In modern society with the fourth industrial revolution, with its multitude of stressors that we encounter on a daily life, a characteristic of mental disorders is that there is a risk to increase them at the unconscious level, and even if the patient were to detect the condition, they are difficult to treat. Therefore, in everyday life, it is desirable to always measure the stress and detect the early signature before they get worse. Thus, this study aims to develop stress coping support system using smart finger plethysmogram measurement, visualizing the internal signals through the heart rate which is affected by stress.
TopIntroduction
In recent years, as a term like the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) (Schwab, 2016; Schwab, 2018) represents, social changes that create new values by utilizing Information Technology (IT, such as computers, the Internet, smart phones, social media, mobile devices, wearable devices, and so on) or digital technologies (DX, such as AI, IoT, Robotics and so on) are progressing in all industries. Digitization of the medical field is progressing. Developing human sensing technology which is detect human condition and behavior are also remarkable progress. Technology development to estimate human stress conditions in everyday life has also progressed.
In modern society with 4IR, the survey of patients in Japan by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (MHLW, 2018) revealed the total number of estimated patients with mood disorders included depressions climbed to more than 111.6 million people in 2014: number of people with mood disorders was 0.433milion in 1996 (Figure 1). This disease, called “modern-day illness”, is largely the result physical stress and psychological stress (Lazarus and Folkman, 1984; Kawakami and Haratani, 1999; Stansfeld et al., 1999). In modern society, we have a broad range of stressors which load to depression; therefore, we are at an increased risk for this illness. However, there are many potential patients despite being affected by a disease. Depression can be defined subjectively or objectively; thus, patients with depression to accept or be aware of their disease. Although a diagnostic test which examines stress level has been invented, it is difficult to help conscious about their disease. The reason is that the test is easily affected arbitrary and subjective elements (Aasman et al., 1987; Haas, 1979; Radloff, 1977). There are three phases of prevention of mental illness based on preventive medicine.
- 1.
Primary prophylaxis by getting rid of the stressor.
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Secondary prophylaxis by early detection and early medical examination.
- 3.
Tertiary prophylaxis by recurrence prevention treatment.
Figure 1. Increase of depressed patients within mood disorders
TopSystem Outline
This study proposes a system using “visual studio net flame work, “The C# Programming Language” and Arduino (Arudino, 2005), A.P.Sheild (Koress, 2010) for open source hard ware (Figure 2, Figure 3).
A.P.Sheild is an expansion board for Arduino compatible computers using photo sensors which make it possible to change an electric currency by catching infrared light emitted from the expansion board. We detect a change of blood flow by using finger photo sensors to measure finger plethysmogram (Fujimoto et al, 2004; Fujimoto et al, 2005) as shown in Figure 4. This system can be used by connecting a personal computer and Arduino attached to A.P.Sheild with a USB cable. This system makes it possible to measure and visualize stress level easily, such as like taking one’s temperature, measuring one’s weight, or measuring blood pressure to self-assess the risk of disease as developing a prototype. The system we invented aims for measuring of stress level as a means of management in the home such as measuring weight, blood pressure and body temperature.