Forecasting Biorhythms for Preventative Stress Interventions

According to the American Psychological Association, 49% of the U.S. population suffers from chronic, daily stress. Chronic stress also has significant long-term behavioral and physical health consequences, including an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer, anxiety and depression. In this position paper, we propose a conceptual framework for thinking through the timing of mobile interventions for stress. One key insight of the work is the need to robustly and accurately forecast future health states to enable preventative interventions. Integrating forecasting into mobile intervention systems raises new questions and challenges in system design choices, evaluating intervention effectiveness, and ethics. Author