Pan Mingzhu, Li Xinxing, Yao Liying, Zaato Solomon Gbene, Kueh Yee Cheng, Kuan Garry
Exercise and Sports Science Programme, School of Health Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Kelantan, Malaysia.
School of Physical Education, Shangrao Normal University, Shangrao, China.
PeerJ. 2025 Aug 8;13:e19830. doi: 10.7717/peerj.19830. eCollection 2025.
Mental stress is a significant contributor to various health issues, including cardiovascular disease, anxiety, and depression. Scholars have developed many tools and methods to evaluate psychological stress states. uBioMacpa Pro is one of the measuring meters that evaluates accumulated stress by measuring heart rate variability (HRV). This study uses reliability and validity tests to validate uBioMacpa Pro among Chinese college students. A total of 260 students (females = 146, males = 114) with a mean age of 21 years (SD = 1.48, 1.51) were volunteers and recruited in the reliability and validity tests, respectively. The heart rate variability parameters showed satisfactory test-retest and inter-rater reliability, with the most intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) values exceeding the acceptable threshold of 0.75. Validity assessment was done by exploring concurrent validity that measured the psychological stress of college students by using uBioMacpa Pro and using the validated Chinese version of the Stress Scales for College Students (C-SSCS) as a reference. The result showed a significant correlation between the uBioMacpa Pro stress index and C-SSCS questionnaire scores ( = 0.246, < 0.001). The overall finding of our study implies that the uBioMacpa Pro has good reliability and validity, and it can be used for monitoring and assessing Chinese college students' mental stress.
精神压力是导致各种健康问题的重要因素，包括心血管疾病、焦虑和抑郁。学者们已经开发出许多工具和方法来评估心理压力状态。uBioMacpa Pro是通过测量心率变异性（HRV）来评估累积压力的测量仪之一。本研究使用信效度测试来验证uBioMacpa Pro在中国大学生中的有效性。共有260名学生（女性 = 146名，男性 = 114名），平均年龄为21岁（标准差 = 1.48、1.51），分别作为信效度测试的志愿者并被招募。心率变异性参数显示出令人满意的重测信度和评分者间信度，大多数组内相关系数（ICC）值超过了可接受的阈值0.75。效度评估通过探索同时效度来进行，即使用uBioMacpa Pro测量大学生的心理压力，并以经过验证的中文版大学生压力量表（C-SSCS）作为参考。结果显示，uBioMacpa Pro压力指数与C-SSCS问卷得分之间存在显著相关性（ = 0.246，< 0.001）。我们研究的总体结果表明，uBioMacpa Pro具有良好的信效度，可用于监测和评估中国大学生的精神压力。
