EVASTRESS Healthy Subjects

Stress is a dynamic psychological state that can fluctuate throughout the day. Traditional methods for assessing stress, such as validated psychometric questionnaires, typically rely on retrospective reporting and may not fully capture short-term variations in perceived stress. Mobile health technologies approaches offer the opportunity to measure stress in real time and in naturalistic settings.

The Stressometer is a mobile application developed to allow rapid and repeated self-assessment of perceived stress using a simple numeric scale. However, the feasibility of using such a tool multiple times per day over a sustained period, as well as its relationship with established psychometric measures, remains to be established.

In a preliminary study, feasibility was investigated in a sample of 30 healthy student participants. Participants were instructed to report their perceived stress level using the Stressometer application four times per day (morning, midday, evening, and bedtime) over a 14-day period. Compliance with repeated assessments and participant engagement were monitored throughout the study.

In addition to mobile-based stress assessments, participants completed validated psychometric questionnaires evaluating stress, anxiety, depression, and well-being. Mean stress scores obtained via the Stressometer were subsequently analyzed and correlated with questionnaire-derived scores to assess convergent validity.

This study aims to further evaluate the feasibility of intensive longitudinal stress measurement using a mobile application, focusing on compliance rates and user acceptability. It also seeks to examine the relationship between real-time stress ratings and standardized psychological measures, in order to determine whether the Stressometer provides a reliable and ecologically valid assessment of perceived stress in daily life.

Inclusion criteria

Participants must meet all of the following criteria to be eligible for inclusion in the study:

• Enrolled as a university student
• Aged 18 years or older
• Possession of a smartphone compatible with the Stressometer application
• No self-reported psychiatric condition that could interfere with study participation or data collection
• Willingness to participate and provision of non-opposition to participate in the study

Exclusion criteria

Participants will be excluded if they meet any of the following criteria:

• Presence of any acute or chronic medical condition that may interfere with study participation or data interpretation, including but not limited to psychiatric disorders, severe sleep disorders, endocrine or metabolic diseases, cardiovascular diseases, neurological conditions, acute or chronic pain, respiratory diseases, substance use disorder or addiction, or current pregnancy or postpartum period
• Individuals deprived of liberty by judicial or administrative decision
• Individuals currently receiving compulsory psychiatric care
• Refusal to participate in the study