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Healthcare
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Health and Wellbeing Strategy Evaluation
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Health and Wellbeing Strategy Evaluation

A special issue of Healthcare (ISSN 2227-9032). This special issue belongs to the section "Public Health and Preventive Medicine".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2026 | Viewed by 608

Editors

Dr. Claudio Lucchiari

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Philosophy, University of Milan, 7, 20122 Milan, Italy
Interests: creativity; learning; cognitive flexibility; decision-making; neuro modulation; emotions; applied cognitive science; multi-brain neuroscience
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Annalisa Banzi

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor Assistant
Department of Philosophy, Università degli Studi di Milano, Via Festa del Perdono 7, 20100 Milan, Italy
Interests: museum studies; psychology; neuroscience; visitor experience

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The increasing complexity of modern public health challenges necessitates the development of multidisciplinary frameworks that move beyond traditional clinical settings. Evaluating health and wellbeing strategies through the lens of preventative care, creative health, social prescribing, and innovative social interventions has become essential for fostering resilient societies and improving quality of life across the lifespan.

We are pleased to invite you to contribute to this Special Issue entitled “Health and Wellbeing Strategy Evaluation”.

This Special Issue aims to explore diverse, evidence-based approaches to promoting mental and physical health. Original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

  • Evaluation of non-clinical health-promoting interventions;
  • Impact of cultural interventions on health and wellbeing;
  • Innovative methodologies for monitoring stress and wellbeing;
  • Scalability of social-based health strategies within the European agenda;
  • Strategies for enhancing mental resilience in vulnerable populations.

We would be delighted if you could contribute to this Special Issue.

Dr. Claudio Lucchiari
Guest Editor

Dr. Annalisa Banzi
Guest Editor Assistant

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Healthcare is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • wellbeing
  • culture
  • health
  • psychology
  • life
  • public health strategy
  • preventative health
  • health promotion
  • European health agenda
  • stress

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Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

18 pages, 975 KB  
Article
The Many Faces of Stress: Preliminary Validation of a Remote Photoplethysmography-Based Tool for Psychophysiological Stress and Emotional Distress Monitoring
by Livio Provenzi, Valeria Calcaterra, Sarah Nazzari, Paolo Osvaldo Agnelli, Marco Xodo, Sergio De Pasquale and Gianvincenzo Zuccotti
Healthcare 2026, 14(13), 1893; https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare14131893 - 29 Jun 2026
Viewed by 330
Abstract
Background: Chronic stress contributes to mental and physical disorders, including burnout, anxiety, and depression. While self-report assessments remain valuable, they are inherently subjective and may be insensitive to short-term psychophysiological fluctuations. Remote photoplethysmography (rPPG) enables non-contact extraction of cardiovascular signals from facial videos [...] Read more.
Background: Chronic stress contributes to mental and physical disorders, including burnout, anxiety, and depression. While self-report assessments remain valuable, they are inherently subjective and may be insensitive to short-term psychophysiological fluctuations. Remote photoplethysmography (rPPG) enables non-contact extraction of cardiovascular signals from facial videos and has increasingly been explored for stress-related monitoring through heart rate and heart rate variability features. Objective: This preliminary study aimed to assess the feasibility, usability, and preliminary construct validity of a mobile rPPG-based application for psychophysiological stress monitoring in daily life by examining usability, stress index distributions, and associations with self-reported psychological distress. Methods: A total of 252 participants from the general population and university students completed standardized facial video acquisition using a smartphone-based rPPG application and self-report questionnaires. The app extracted pulse wave signals, computed cardiovascular features related to heart rate and pulse rate variability, and integrated them into three indices: Stress Level, Stress Recovery, and Stress Response. Correlation and regression analyses examined associations with psychological distress. Results: The three indices showed substantial inter-individual variability. Stress Level was significantly associated with anxiety (r = 0.13, p = 0.036), depressive symptoms (r = 0.13, p = 0.047), and General Emotional Distress (r = 0.17, p = 0.006). In regression analysis, Stress Level emerged as the only significant independent correlate of General Emotional Distress (β = 0.21, p = 0.017). Younger participants and women showed higher Stress Level scores. Conclusions: The present findings should therefore be interpreted as preliminary and exploratory evidence of construct validity, suggesting that the app-derived indices may capture individual differences in stress-related physiological activation in everyday contexts. Currently, the observed associations were weak, the model explained limited variance, and the results do not demonstrate clinical validity, diagnostic utility, or predictive accuracy. Looking ahead, further longitudinal studies, repeated rPPG assessments, correction-aware analyses, and validation against reference physiological measures are needed before these indices can be considered suitable for clinical or preventive use. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Health and Wellbeing Strategy Evaluation)
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