Authors:
Rachele Anderson
1
;
Peter Jönsson
2
and
Maria Sandsten
1
Affiliations:
1
Centre for Mathematical Sciences, Lund University, Sweden
;
2
School of Education and Environment, Centre for Psychology, Kristianstad University, Sweden
Keyword(s):
HRV, Chirp Respiratory Frequency, Locally Stationary Chirp Processes, Time-varying Signals, Time-series Modelling, Linear and Logistic Regression.
Abstract:
Recent studies have focused on investigating different factors that may affect heart rate variability (HRV), pointing especially to the effects of age, gender and stress level. Other findings raise the importance of considering the respiratory frequency in the analysis of HRV signals. In this study, we evaluate the effect of several covariates on the parameters of a stochastic model for HRV. The data was recorded from 47 test participants, whose breathing was controlled by following a metronome with increasing frequency. This setup allows for a controlled acquisition of respiratory related HRV data covering the frequency range in which adults breathe in different everyday situations. A stochastic model, known as Locally Stationary Chirp Process, accounts for the respiratory signal information and models the HRV data. The model parameters are estimated with a novel inference method based on the separability features possessed by the process covariance function. Least square regressi
on analysis using several available covariates is used to investigate the correlation with the stochastic model parameters. The results show statistically significant correlation of the model parameters with age, BMI, State and Trait Anxiety as well as stress level.
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