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Evaluation of Stair Climbing as an Approach for Estimating Heart Rate
Recovery in Daily Activities
Daivaras Sokas
1
, Andrius Rapalis
1,2
, Andrius Petr
˙
enas
1,2
, Saulius Daukantas
1
and
Vaidotas Marozas
1,2
1
Biomedical Engineering Institute, Kaunas University of Technology, Kaunas, Lithuania
2
Department of Electronics Engineering, Kaunas University of Technology, Kaunas, Lithuania
Keywords:
Stair Climbing, Heart Rate Recovery, Daily Activities, Fitbit, YMCA.
Abstract:
Post-Exercise heart rate recovery (HRR) is a convenient approach to assess cardiovascular autonomic function.
Ordinary stair climbing can be viewed as an alternative HRR test performed in daily activities, and also well-
suited for implementation in wrist-worn devices. This study compares HHR parameters estimated after stair
climbing to those obtained by performing the conventional YMCA bench step test using a custom-made wrist-
worn device and a consumer smart wristband Fitbit Charge 2. The results show that most HHR parameters are
underestimated after stair climbing but still comparable to those obtained from the bench step test. The lowest
relative error, 8–11% on average, was found for the decay of heart rate in 30, 60, and 120 s after the recovery
onset.
1 INTRODUCTION
Post-exercise heart rate recovery (HRR) is a simple
non-invasive approach to assess cardiovascular auto-
nomic function (Jouven et al., 2005; Pec¸anha et al.,
2017). Slower HRR is associated with decreased
physical fitness, cardiovascular diseases, and is a pre-
dictor of death (Jouven et al., 2005; Pec¸anha et al.,
2017). HRR can be improved by cardiac rehabilita-
tion (Streuber et al., 2006; Hai et al., 2010) and even
weight loss (Thomson et al., 2010). Therefore, HRR
trend monitoring could be useful for assessing the ef-
fectiveness of exercise training at home environment.
HRR is assessed using standardised tests that re-
quire specialised equipment and supervision. Hence,
it is inconvenient for use outside the clinical setting.
Improvement in wearable device technology gives op-
portunity to evaluate HRR by using a photoplethys-
mogram (PPG) signal (Sokas et al., 2019). Since stair
climbing is a common daily activity that require phys-
ical effort, and is usually followed by slow walking or
rest, this activity can be considered as an alternative
HRR test performed in free-living conditions.
Our previous work reported the feasibility of esti-
mating HRR parameters after stair climbing using the
wrist-worn device with the embedded PPG and baro-
metric pressure sensors (Sokas et al., 2019). However,
it is unclear how the new approach compares to the
conventional bench step test. Accordingly, the aim of
this study is to compare the agreement of HRR param-
eters estimated after stair climbing to those obtained
by performing the bench step test.
2 MATERIALS AND METHODS
2.1 Study Population and Data
Acquisition
Fifty-four healthy volunteers (18 women), 25.5 ± 8.1
(mean ± SD) years old (range 18 to 50 years), with a
height of 177.4 ± 8.5 cm, weight of 73.7 ± 14.4 kg,
and body mass index of 23.3 ± 3.9 kg/m
2
were en-
rolled in the study.
The study was performed according to the pro-
tocol given in Figure 1. Participants were asked to
climb four floors (96 stairs in total) three times at dif-
ferent climbing rate: 48, 72, and 96 steps per minute.
After each activity, the participants had to rest in a
standing position for five minutes, slowly descend
to the ground floor and rest for three minutes be-
fore the next activity. The YMCA bench step test
was performed using the protocol described in (Gold-
ing, 2000) during which a participant has to step on
a 30.5 cm high bench for 3 min at a stepping rate
Sokas, D., Rapalis, A., Petr
˙
enas, A., Daukantas, S. and Marozas, V.
Evaluation of Stair Climbing as an Approach for Estimating Heart Rate Recovery in Daily Activities.
DOI: 10.5220/0010184500210025
In Proceedings of the 14th International Joint Conference on Biomedical Engineering Systems and Technologies (BIOSTEC 2021) - Volume 4: BIOSIGNALS, pages 21-25
ISBN: 978-989-758-490-9
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c
2021 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved
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