Daily mobility, activity and environmental determinants of stress in ecological momentary assessment (EMA) and GPS studies: a scoping review protocol

TL;DR

This paper outlines a scoping review protocol to explore how daily mobility, activities, and environmental factors influence stress levels using GPS and EMA methods.

Contribution

The study introduces a systematic approach to identify spatio-temporal determinants of stress through ecological momentary assessment and GPS data.

Findings

The review will focus on spatio-temporal modeling of environmental exposures linked to daily activities and mobility.

It will include studies from 2000 to 2025 using EMA/ESM and GPS to measure stress.

The review will follow PRISMA-ScR guidelines and involve two independent reviewers for screening.

Abstract

Stress is omnipresent in our everyday lives and a key risk factor for our physical and mental health. Yet little is known about the impact of geographic life environments, linked to our daily activities and mobility patterns, on our momentary and daily stress levels.

We propose this review to gather evidence on the spatio-temporal determinants of momentary or daily stress in studies using ecological momentary assessment (EMA) or experience sampling methods (ESM) in addition to global positioning systems (GPS) tracking. We will focus on the spatio-temporal definition and modelling of environmental exposures accounting for participant daily activities and mobility patterns and their association with stress.

This scoping review will follow the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses framework for scoping reviews (2018). We will search the PubMed/Medline, Web of Science, PsycInfo and Scopus databases. We will include papers using EMA or ESM and GPS measuring chronic, daily or momentary stress as an outcome; these methods are also referred to as geographically-explicit ecological momentary assessment.

Articles published from January 2000–June 2025 will be screened. Two independent reviewers will screen titles and abstracts to agree on the inclusion of articles. No geographical or population limitation will be imposed.

This study is a scoping review based on previously published and publicly available literature. It does not involve the collection of primary data, human participants, or the processing of personal or sensitive information. Therefore, ethical approval is not required in accordance with institutional and international research ethics guidelines. The results will be submitted in peer-reviewed journals and presented at international conferences.