Assistive technology to monitor and reduce anxiety levels among college students throughout the analysis of heartbeat frecuency

We developed a smart wearable system to identify, monitor and reduce levels of anxiety of college students by using a wearable device and a mobile application. Anxiety is one of the most frequent mental health problems of college students. Prior studies suggest that anxiety is related with low study performance, college attrition, heart-related condition, and depression. Despite the availability of college resources offered to assist students (e.g., counselling services), only 1 in 5 students with anxiety issues receives an adequate treatment. Two highlighted reasons for this gap are stigma and preference for self-mutual help. The proposed wearable system includes a wearable device and a mobile application with embedded recommended activities to reduce anxiety levels of college student. The solution has 5 components: 1) Gathering of physiological variables though the wearable, 2) Integrating the wearable and the mobile application, 3) Storing data, 4) Integrating the solution and web application and 5) Monitoring, treatment and identification of anxiety levels. The system was validated at a University in Lima, Peru with 10 students between 18 and 23 years old. The preliminary results indicated that the system could identify and help in reducing effectively the level of anxiety in 80% of the cases students.