Periodic Reporting for period 1 - FragMent (Geographic environments, daily activities and stress: a study on the space-time fragmentation of exposure patterns)
Reporting period: 2022-10-01 to 2025-03-31
FragMent aims to evaluate the extent to which the spatial and temporal fragmentation of exposures to environments in daily life influences physiological and psychological stress, as well as social inequalities in stress. Stress result from a difficult situation that creates mental tension or a state of worry (WHO) and that is embodied psychologically (e.g. arousal, valence) and physiologically (e.g. variations in heartbeat, sweat production, voice, etc.). It imposes a tremendous burden worldwide with two out of three individuals reporting stress related mental illness, and one out of five reporting stress impacts on physical health. It is a risk factor in 75-90 percent of diseases, and a major contributor to mental disorders, autoimmune, infectious and cardiovascular diseases, and some cancers.
Engaging in daily activities translates into travelling to and staying within a variety of environments over a day. According to the Stress Restorative theory, exposures to daily environments may either act as a stress contributor or provide some restorative qualities. For example, while greener environments reduce stress, higher built-up density and proximity to traffic do the reverse. Yet, the combination of these momentary effects on stress over a day have so far been largely ignored. While being in a park for one hour may lower down the stress accumulated at the workplace, is it still the case if accessing the park means a difficult 10-minute walk with road crossings, loud noises, and high traffic intensity? Is it still relaxing if instead of reading alone in the park, you watch your kids so they don't hurt themselves or go too far? How does it depend on the activity carried out before, or the environment visited immediately after? How are these exposures and activities distributed across social groups?
FragMent builds on a corpus of evidence from epidemiology and Time Geography, to develop a new analytical framework of momentary (within-day variation), daily (between-day variation) and chronic stress. Research includes an observational cohort study that integrates online map-based questionnaires, and a mobile app combining ecological momentary assessment, GPS, and vocal biomarkers of stress to analyses participants’ environmental stressors in real life environments. The project also develops a series of lab-based experiments using virtual reality and a walking simulator to systematically test for numerous environmental stressors in controlled environments.
Engaging in daily activities translates into travelling to and staying within a variety of environments over a day. According to the Stress Restorative theory, exposures to daily environments may either act as a stress contributor or provide some restorative qualities. For example, while greener environments reduce stress, higher built-up density and proximity to traffic do the reverse. Yet, the combination of these momentary effects on stress over a day have so far been largely ignored. While being in a park for one hour may lower down the stress accumulated at the workplace, is it still the case if accessing the park means a difficult 10-minute walk with road crossings, loud noises, and high traffic intensity? Is it still relaxing if instead of reading alone in the park, you watch your kids so they don't hurt themselves or go too far? How does it depend on the activity carried out before, or the environment visited immediately after? How are these exposures and activities distributed across social groups?
FragMent builds on a corpus of evidence from epidemiology and Time Geography, to develop a new analytical framework of momentary (within-day variation), daily (between-day variation) and chronic stress. Research includes an observational cohort study that integrates online map-based questionnaires, and a mobile app combining ecological momentary assessment, GPS, and vocal biomarkers of stress to analyses participants’ environmental stressors in real life environments. The project also develops a series of lab-based experiments using virtual reality and a walking simulator to systematically test for numerous environmental stressors in controlled environments.
Sub-Project 1: An observational study on environments, activities and stress in daily life using map-based questionnaires & a mobile survey
The observational study aims to survey 2000 adults, age 18-65 years old, residing in Luxembourg.
The survey design first includes an online part that combine traditional questionnaires and a map-based component, in order to measure - and analyze - participants’ regular activity patterns, regular exposure to geographic environments, and chronic stress. Second, the survey includes a mobile component involving a 15-day follow-up using an app that integrates ecological momentary assessment (EMA), GPS tracking, and voice samples. The analyses will examine the relationships between momentary and daily exposures to geographic environments and stress levels, assessed both psychologically and physiologically through vocal biomarkers of stress. The data collection was launched on October 2024.
Sub-Project 2: An experimental study using virtual reality (VR) to examine the effects of the urban environment and exposure fragmentation on stress
The series of VR lab-based experiments aim at first testing and validating the experimental setting and measures, and second, testing systematically the effect of numerous environmental characteristics on psychological and physiological stress, while keeping a high level of realism. The experimental setting includes a virtual reality headset, a 360° walking simulator, and wristband to measure stress bio-signals.
The first pilot tested for the comparability between stress responses to environmental stressors in virtual reality and in real life environment. This pilot includes 50 participants, who walked in a pedestrian and a car-friendly streets, both real environment and in a virtual copy of the streets, in a random order.
The second pilot tested for the ability to measure average stress and peaks of stress induced by daily life environmental factors, in virtual reality, while walking. This second pilot includes 50 participants, who were exposed to a relaxing park and a stressful street, in a random order.
Focus groups performed on 32 participants investigated i) the stressful environmental characteristics in Luxembourg, ii) the influence of situational factors (what activity, where, when, with whom), and iii) the vulnerabilities across social groups.
The observational study aims to survey 2000 adults, age 18-65 years old, residing in Luxembourg.
The survey design first includes an online part that combine traditional questionnaires and a map-based component, in order to measure - and analyze - participants’ regular activity patterns, regular exposure to geographic environments, and chronic stress. Second, the survey includes a mobile component involving a 15-day follow-up using an app that integrates ecological momentary assessment (EMA), GPS tracking, and voice samples. The analyses will examine the relationships between momentary and daily exposures to geographic environments and stress levels, assessed both psychologically and physiologically through vocal biomarkers of stress. The data collection was launched on October 2024.
Sub-Project 2: An experimental study using virtual reality (VR) to examine the effects of the urban environment and exposure fragmentation on stress
The series of VR lab-based experiments aim at first testing and validating the experimental setting and measures, and second, testing systematically the effect of numerous environmental characteristics on psychological and physiological stress, while keeping a high level of realism. The experimental setting includes a virtual reality headset, a 360° walking simulator, and wristband to measure stress bio-signals.
The first pilot tested for the comparability between stress responses to environmental stressors in virtual reality and in real life environment. This pilot includes 50 participants, who walked in a pedestrian and a car-friendly streets, both real environment and in a virtual copy of the streets, in a random order.
The second pilot tested for the ability to measure average stress and peaks of stress induced by daily life environmental factors, in virtual reality, while walking. This second pilot includes 50 participants, who were exposed to a relaxing park and a stressful street, in a random order.
Focus groups performed on 32 participants investigated i) the stressful environmental characteristics in Luxembourg, ii) the influence of situational factors (what activity, where, when, with whom), and iii) the vulnerabilities across social groups.
At this stage, it is impossible to foresee all results beyond the state of the art, but my expectations are the following:
A- A new analytical framework for neighborhood effects on (mental) health that :
- Acknowledges the “meaning of time” in neighborhood effects
- Provides a better assessment of social inequalities in stress
B- Advances in risk measurement
- Identification of vocal biomarkers of stress from a repeated vocal samples over 15 days
- New knowledge on physiological stress responses induced by environmental factors
C- Robust evidence on environmental stressors in daily life
- New knowledge of environmental stressors
- Better understanding of the role played by daily activities and situational factors in urban stress
A- A new analytical framework for neighborhood effects on (mental) health that :
- Acknowledges the “meaning of time” in neighborhood effects
- Provides a better assessment of social inequalities in stress
B- Advances in risk measurement
- Identification of vocal biomarkers of stress from a repeated vocal samples over 15 days
- New knowledge on physiological stress responses induced by environmental factors
C- Robust evidence on environmental stressors in daily life
- New knowledge of environmental stressors
- Better understanding of the role played by daily activities and situational factors in urban stress