Background: Traditional pulse diagnosis relies heavily on physician experience, limiting its consistency and scalability in community healthcare. As the aging population grows, there is an urgent need for objective, non-invasive tools to assess elderly health. This study applies Pulse Harmonic Analysis to quantify pulse characteristics and explores their associations with physiological, psychological, and metabolic indicators in a rural elderly population. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study recruiting 101 elderly residents (mean age 78.8 ± 6.1 years) from Qishan and Meinong, Taiwan. Participants included those from home-based care, mobile clinics, and community centers. Pulse waves were recorded using photoplethysmography (PPG) sensors to extract harmonic amplitude (C1–C10), phase power (P1–P10), and their variabilities (CV, PnSD). Clinical assessments included the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), anxiety/depression scales (BAI/BDI), and metabolic profiles. Results: Static harmonic analysis revealed that low-frequency amplitudes (C1–C3) were significantly negatively correlated with systolic blood pressure, reflecting arterial compliance. However, static parameters failed to distinguish hypertensive from non-hypertensive groups, likely due to medication effects and age-related vascular stiffness. Crucially, dynamic variability analysis showed a significant negative correlation between the standard deviation of pulse amplitude (P1SD–P8SD) and cognitive function (MoCA scores). Specifically, P1SD showed the strongest correlation , indicating that higher pulse instability is associated with lower cognitive performance. Conclusion: While static pulse metrics may have limited sensitivity in medicated elderly populations, dynamic pulse variability features (particularly P1SD) emerged as significant physiological markers for cognitive decline. This study suggests that "pulse stability" rather than mere"pulse strength" offers higher clinical value for geriatric assessment.

Authors:
Yen-Wen Chang, Ministry of Health and Welfare, Taiwan
Kun-Yuan Hsiao, Ministry of Health and Welfare, Taiwan
Jia-Yu Wei, Ministry of Health and Welfare, Taiwan
Yong-Hong Chen, Ministry of Health and Welfare, Taiwan
Wan-Hsuan Huang, Ministry of Health and Welfare, Taiwan

About the Presenter(s)
Chang Yen-wen is currently a research assistant at the Teaching and Research Center of Qishan Hospital, Ministry of Health and Welfare, where she is conducting empirical.Research on pulse harmonic analysis for health assessment in the elderly.

See this presentation on the full schedule – Tuesday Schedule

Bookmark