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HRV-based physician consultations to enhance biopsychosocial awareness: a randomized controlled trial with managers

Christin BRAUN, Elisabandh Maria BALINT, Charlotte MÜMKEN, Franziska KESSEMEIER, Thomas BUCKLEY, Eva URBAN, Falko PAPENFUSS, Harald GÜNDEL and Marc JARCZOK

Digital health technologies such as wearables shape the everyday lives and health awareness of patients – also in primary care settings. These tools offer opportunities for individual patient-centred care, yet there is a need for practical and evaluated methods to use these technologies meaningfully in clinical practice – as part of a holistic treatment approach. This study explores a wearable-informed physician consultation on basis of the biopsychosocial model that could be translated into primary care settings.Our goal was to investigate if a physician consultation based on a 24-hour heart rate variability (HRV) spectrograph combined with a diary increased the notice of interactions between thoughts, feelings and bodily reactions compared to controls.A randomized controlled trial was conducted with one hundred managers from a manufacturing and engineering company, randomized into an intervention (IG) or control group (CG). The IG underwent a 24-hour ECG (Electrocardiogram) measurement, documented daily events and completed questionnaires. These data informed a 50-minute consultation, focusing on the connection between emotions, thoughts, recorded situations, and HRV. Questionnaires were repeated after three months. Changes in the primary outcome – awareness of biopsychosocial interactions – were analysed using repeated-measures ANOVA.Data from 81 participants with complete HRV and questionnaire data were included in the final analysis. Participants (94% male, mean ±SD age 48±8.6 years) in the IG reported significantly increased awareness of mind-body interactions (p=0.032, η²=0.057) and were more likely to respond to their body's needs (p=0.008, η²=0.085). Perceived stress was significantly reduced only in the IG (p=0.017, η²=0.071).This approach, integrating HRV visualization with diary-based reflection, proved to be a feasible and effective method for enhancing awareness of biopsychosocial processes, supporting self-regulation, promoting behavioural change and reducing perceived stress. The occupational setting with the study population of predominantly male managers may limit generalizability.This study serves as a gateway for personalized preventive strategies and can complement traditional medical consultations based on wearable data. Further exploration in diverse settings, such as primary care, is recommended to fully assess its broader applicability and benefits. Keywords: primary prevention; Stress, Psychological; Heart Rate / physiology; Patient-Centered Care