Heart Rate Variability as a Biomarker for Posttraumatic Growth: A Comparative Study of Brain Tumor Patients and...

To explore the levels and group differences of posttraumatic growth and heart rate variability in a sample of brain tumor patients and their caregivers.

Convenience sampling method was adopted, and general information questionnaire, posttraumatic growth scale, and heart rate variability test were applied to survey and test a total of 55 dyads of brain tumor patients and their caregivers (110 participants) who were hospitalized in a tertiary-level hospital in Guangzhou City.

The posttraumatic growth scores of brain tumor patients and their caregivers were 59.00 (44.00, 71.00) and 65.00 (56.00, 73.00), respectively. Analysis of variance showed that total power [TP], high frequency power [HF], and low frequency power [LF] were higher in caregivers than in brain tumor patients, and the results were significantly different (t = -4.424 to -2.194, p _ln total = 0.030, p _ln LF < 0.001, p _ln HF < 0.001); In addition to the above frequency domain metrics, individuals "individuals" with PTG (vs. without PTG) showed significantly higher SDNN, RMSSD (F = 4.300 to 42.275, p = < 0.001 to 0.041).

Significant differences in HRV metrics across populations (patients vs. caregivers) and individuals with different levels of posttraumatic growth suggest that HRV may serve as a biomarker for assessing posttraumatic growth.