In recent years, smart devices have proven their effectiveness in monitoring mental health issues and have played a crucial role in providing therapy. The ability to embed sensors in fabrics opens new horizons for mental healthcare, addressing the growing demand for innovative solutions in monitoring and therapy. The objective of this review is to understand mental health, its impact on the human body, and the latest advancements in the field of smart textiles (sensors, electrodes, and smart garments) for monitoring physiological signals such as respiration rate (RR), electroencephalogram (EEG), electrodermal activity (EDA), electrocardiogram (ECG), and cortisol, all of which are associated with mental health disorders. Databases such as Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus were used to identify studies that utilized smart textiles to monitor specific physiological parameters. Research indicates that smart textiles provide promising results compared to traditional methods, offering enhanced comfort for long-term monitoring.
The development of smart wearable solutions for monitoring daily life health status is increasingly popular, with chest straps and wristbands being predominant. This study introduces a novel sensorized T-shirt design with textile electrodes connected via a knitting technique to a Movesense device. We aimed to investigate the impact of stationary and movement actions on electrocardiography (ECG) and heart rate (HR) measurements using our sensorized T-shirt. Various activities of daily living (ADLs), including sitting, standing, walking, and mopping, were evaluated by comparing our T-shirt with a commercial chest strap. Our findings demonstrate measurement equivalence across ADLs, regardless of the sensing approach. By comparing ECG and HR measurements, we gained valuable insights into the influence of physical activity on sensorized T-shirt development for monitoring. Notably, the ECG signals exhibited remarkable similarity between our sensorized T-shirt and the chest strap, with closely aligned HR distributions during both stationary and movement actions. The average mean absolute percentage error was below 3%, affirming the agreement between the two solutions. These findings underscore the robustness and accuracy of our sensorized T-shirt in monitoring ECG and HR during diverse ADLs, emphasizing the significance of considering physical activity in cardiovascular monitoring research and the development of personal health applications.