MITIGATING THE IMPACTS OF CORONAVIRUS DISEASE USING HEART RATE VARIABILITYMITIGATING THE IMPACTS OF CORONAVIRUS DISEASE USING HEART RATE VARIABILITY

Abstract

Objective: The primary objective of this literature review is to examine the current state of the science on heart rate variability is currently used to mitigate the impact of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The secondary objective of this literature review is to discuss future implications based on the identified gaps in current research surrounding Heart Rate Variability (HRV) and COVID-19. This scoping review isn’t limited to patients with COVID-19, as it also explores indirect impacts of the pandemic, including Healthcare Worker (HCW) burnout. Methods: In November of 2022, a scoping review was performed by using one database, PubMed. The key phrase “HRV and COVID-19” was used to search for relevant articles. Results: 42 articles were collected, of which 16 met the inclusion criteria for relevance. From these 16 articles, four distinct categories were identified. The first category is predicting COVID-19 diagnosis. The second is predicting COVID-19 patient outcomes. The third is monitoring Healthcare Worker (HCW) burnout and guiding HCWs in Triaging and Treating Patients suffering because of the physical and psychological impacts of COVID-19. Finally, HRV shows potential as a remote monitoring system of a large population’s health. Conclusion: More research is needed to determine how and if age as well as the type of variant influences the way COVID-19 can be monitored with HRV. Gaps in the current state of the science are identified as the lack of data on variants and special populations, including pediatrics and certain chronic conditions. This demonstrates the need for future research.