Screening Students for Stress Using Fitbit Data

Rebecca Lopez, Avantika Shrestha, Kevin Hickey, Xingtong Guo, M. L. Tlachac, Shichao Liu, Elke A. Rundensteiner

Abstract: The pressures faced by college students frequently lead to heightened levels of stress. Wearable devices, which collect sensor data in a non-intrusive manner, present an opportunity for early detection of stress. Nonetheless, there is a lack of diversity in current research concerning psychological assessments, physiological metrics, and time series features. In this work, we utilize a Fitbit dataset and evaluate its use in predicting stress through machine learning. Our results demonstrate that physiological data such as calories burned and sleep hold promise for stress screening, with F1 scores reaching up to 0.81. These findings illustrate the potential of wearable technology for continuous stress monitoring and emphasize the need for selecting appropriate data aggregation levels and physiological modalities for effective screening.