Transition of Human Heart Rate Variability and Body Acceleration during the COVID-19 Pandemic Observed from Holter Electrocardiogram Big Data

Abstract

In this paper, we used ALLSTAR big data to investigate changes in Heart rate variability(HRV) and body acceleration(BA) in younger (20s) and elderly groups (70s) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Compared to before (2019) and during (2020, 2021) the COVID-19 pandemic, significant decrease in HRV was observed in both the younger and the elderly groups (P<0.01). BA in the younger groups decreased significantly in 2020 compared to 2019, and no significant difference was observed in the elderly group. Mental stress due to the COVID-19 pandemic is thought to be one of the factors contributing to the decrease in HRV. In the elderly group, respiratory frequency was faster in 2020 than in 2019 (P<0.01) and slower in 2021 than in 2020 (P<0.01). It is thought that the respiratory frequency is changing due to the mask life.