HRV and salivary cortisol data in pregnant women

Objective: To develop a machine learning algorithm utilizing heart rate variability (HRV) and salivary cortisol to detect the presence of acute stress among pregnant women that may be applied to future clinical research. Methods: ECG signals and salivary cortisol were analyzed from 29 pregnant women as part of a crossover study involving a standardized acute psychological stress exposure and a control non-stress condition. A filter-based features selection method was used to identify the importance of different features [heart rate (HR), time- and frequency-domain HRV parameters and salivary cortisol] for stress assessment and reduce the computational complexity. Five machine learning algorithms were implemented to assess the presence of stress with and without salivary cortisol values. Results: On graphical visualization, an obvious difference in heart rate (HR), HRV parameters and cortisol were evident among 17 participants between the two visits, which helped the stress assessment mo...