San Diego State University’s Clinical Psychology research group and the Drexel University WELL Center joined forces using VivoSense® to investigate Heart Rate Variability (HRV) and its link to obesity, binge eating, and loss of control while eating. Specifically, the study examined the association between HRV and binge eating and change in HRV from a resting to a stressed task as a potential marker of emotional regulation capacity in obese individuals.
VivoSense® Software, along with data from the EquivitalTM LifeMonitor, has been used to advance our understanding of HRV, a biomarker of health and disease. For example, Godfrey et al. used VivoSense® Software’s unique Heart Rate Variability Module and proprietary algorithm to detect ECG artifact automatically, QRS complex, and derive time-and frequency-domain HRV measures.
The primary finding from this study was that specific measures of HRV were associated with emotional regulation among individuals with obesity. These results may have broader clinical implications for innovative technological interventions such as “just-in-time-adaptive-interventions” via smartphone. Being able to non-invasively collect data of an individual’s affect and emotion regulation using HRV could lead to a decrease in demand for the individual to self-report. It also leads to less subjective research endpoints for emotional and psychological studies and the possibility to detect and create coping strategies for emotional regulation.
The VivoSense team continues to collaborate with researchers investigating HRV as a biomarker for individual health. HRV shows promise as a valuable endpoint in emotional health, specifically in cases of obesity, loss of control, and binge eating.