Data_Sheet_1_Examining Response to Negative Life Events Through Fitness Tracker Data.docx

Negative life events, such as the death of a loved one, are an unavoidable part of life. These events can be overwhelmingly stressful and may lead to the development of mental health disorders. To mitigate these adverse developments, prior literature has utilized measures of psychological responses to negative life events to better understand their effects on mental health. However, psychological changes represent only one aspect of an individual's potential response. We posit measuring additional dimensions of health, such as physical health, may also be beneficial, as physical health itself may be affected by negative life events and measuring its response could provide context to changes in mental health. Therefore, the primary aim of this work was to quantify how an individual's physical health changes in response to negative life events by testing for deviations in their physiological and behavioral state (PB-state). After capturing post-event, PB-state responses, our second aim sought to contextualize changes within known factors of psychological response to negative life events, namely coping strategies. To do so, we utilized a cohort of professionals across the United States monitored for 1 year and who experienced a negative life event while under observation. Garmin Vivosmart-3 devices provided a multidimensional representation of one's PB-state by collecting measures of resting heart rate, physical activity, and sleep. To test for deviations in PB-state following negative life events, One-Class Support Vector Machines were trained on a window of time prior to the event, which established a PB-state baseline. The model then evaluated participant's PB-state on the day of the life event and each day that followed, assigning each day a level of deviance relative to the participant's baseline. Resulting response curves were then examined in association with the use of various coping strategies using Bayesian gamma-hurdle regression models. The results from our objectives suggest that physical determinants of health also deviate in response to negative life events and that these deviations can be mitigated through different coping strategies. Taken together, these observations stress the need to examine physical determinants of health alongside psychological determinants when investigating the effects of negative life events.

负性生活事件，如亲人的离世，乃人生不可避免的组成部分。此类事件往往带来压倒性的压力，并可能导致心理健康问题的产生。为了减轻这些不利影响，先前的研究文献已采用对负性生活事件心理反应的衡量手段，以更好地理解其对心理健康的影响。然而，心理变化仅代表个人潜在反应的一个方面。我们认为，测量健康的其他维度，如身体健康，也可能大有裨益，因为身体健康本身可能受到负性生活事件的影响，而对其反应的测量能够为心理健康的变化提供背景信息。因此，本研究的首要目标是量化个人在负性生活事件影响下身体健康的变化，通过检测其生理和行为状态（PB-state）的偏差来实现。在捕捉到事件后的PB-state反应后，我们的第二个目标是将在负性生活事件心理反应已知因素中，即应对策略中，对这些变化进行背景化。为此，我们利用了美国一群专业人员在一年内的观察数据，他们在观察期间经历了负性生活事件。Garmin Vivosmart-3设备通过收集静息心率、身体活动和睡眠等指标，提供了一个多维度的PB-state表征。为了检测负性生活事件后PB-state的偏差，我们使用了一类支持向量机在事件前的时间窗口内进行训练，从而建立了PB-state基线。随后，该模型评估了事件当天以及随后每一天参与者的PB-state，相对于其基线为每一天分配了一个偏差水平。随后，我们使用贝叶斯伽马门限回归模型，将产生的响应曲线与各种应对策略的使用联系起来进行考察。我们的研究结果指出，健康生理因素在负性生活事件影响下也会出现偏差，而这些偏差可以通过不同的应对策略得到缓解。综合这些观察结果，强调了在研究负性生活事件的影响时，有必要将健康生理因素与心理健康因素一同考虑。