Do stress and blood pressure affect your health?

Join the My BP Lab UCSF study to find out.

About the Study

The UCSF My BP Lab study uses surveys and sensor data from your phone or Galaxy Watch Active to quantify and understand how stress and daily experiences affect your health.

For three weeks, complete daily check-ins where you measure stress and emotional experiences during your daily life as well as physiological responses like blood pressure and heart rate.

Participants must be 18 years or older to participate and have a Samsung S9 / S9+ / Note9 / S10 / S10+ phone.

Why Participate?

Your participation will help contribute to scientific knowledge about stress and blood pressure in daily life. Your participation will also help improve measurement of blood pressure through smartphones and wearables. In addition, during the study you will receive insights into when and how much you experience different levels of stress, information about your sleeping patterns, well-being, and how your body responds during stress.

What’s new in 2.0?

In addition to new daily questions and improved blood pressure measurement, the newest version of the My BP Lab app offers three major innovations:

Game-Like Cognitive Tasks
My BP Lab 2.0 turns brain training around by measuring your memory, attention, and cognitive flexibility with game-like challenges. Why? We want to examine how stress and daily experiences influence cognitive capacity from one moment to the next.

Stress Management Training
Feeling stressed and overwhelmed? My BP Lab 2.0 offers stress management training. By opting into the stress management module, you’ll be able to see short videos that teach you skills to help reduce stress and blood pressure.

Galaxy Watch Active Integration
With My BP Lab 2.0, you can connect your Galaxy Watch Active to the app and measure your blood pressure straight from your smartwatch in just a few quick touches.

FAQ

I'm having difficulty getting a good blood pressure reading. How do I improve the signal?

First, check the positioning of your hand. The error may be due to excessive movement. In order to minimize movement, place a pillow under your hand and wrist so that they are fully supported at a 45 degree angle. Additionally, avoid talking, crossing your legs, or taking deep breaths while taking the blood pressure recording.

Try moving the sensor higher on your finger so that the sensor is resting closer to the tip of your finger rather than the pad of your finger. Make sure your finger is fully covering the light.

If you apply pressure to the sensor, it will detect it as movement and you will not get a clear reading. Rest the sensor on your finger and try again.

The temperature of the room or your hand can affect the quality of the signal. Place your finger in a cup of warm water for 15-30 seconds. Dry your finger thoroughly and try again.

I only see percentage changes when I take a blood pressure measurement. How do I see my actual blood pressure values?

The sensor algorithm needs one initial baseline value from a blood pressure machine as a reference value. Once you enter those reference value numbers then the app will return systolic and diastolic blood pressure numbers.

If you do not have any access to a blood pressure machine and do not know you current blood pressure value then the app is still quite useful since you can view the percentage changes in blood pressure over time.

Can someone else use my phone to measure their blood pressure?

Because the app requires you to complete an initial calibration, all of the blood pressure measurements taken through your app will be specific to you. If someone else uses your app to take their blood pressure, the output will not be reflective of that person's blood pressure.