Older pedestrians’ physiological reactions are indicative of stressful and non-stressful urban built environment conditions

This research examines whether the physiological responses, measured using wearable sensors, among older adults vary by stress and non-stress environmental conditions. The physiological responses – specifically, heart rate variability and electrodermal activity – and perceived stress among ten older adults were measured while walking along an urban path. The path condition was assessed by two trained observers.

The differences in participants’ physiological responses (individual and collective) and individual differences (including body mass index and gender) under perceived stressful and non-stressful path conditions were tested using Wilcoxon signed-rank. A test for clustering of physiological responses was conducted among all participants and associated perceived stress and non-stress path conditions. In addition, a spatio-temporal analysis was conducted to detect variation in physiological responses within the stress and non-stress path conditions.

Results indicated that, on average, participants experienced a statistically significant higher physiological response to environmental conditions perceived as non-stress than environmental conditions perceived as stress. Women experienced a significantly higher physiological response to non-stress environmental conditions than men. Stressful environmental conditions pose a high demand to older adults with a body mass index above 24.9. Personal factors and time-dependent environmental factors influence the effectiveness of wearable physiological sensing; nevertheless, such sensing can complement existing built environment assessment approaches to improve active ageing and age-friendly city and community design.