Human stress ontology: multiple applications and implications of an ontology framework in the mental health domain

Abstract

A large number of articles exist that discuss and define various concepts, terms, and theories relating to human stress. The heterogeneous and dynamic nature of this knowledge, and the growing research, highlight the need and significance of designing a coherent and sharable ontology framework for human stress domain. In response to this need, we design Human Stress Ontology (HSO) to capture stress-related concepts and their relationships in an agreed and machine readable framework. This ontology is organized according to the following five sub-ontologies: causes, mediators, effects, treatments and measurements. Development of an ontology in this field will facilitate interoperability between different information systems and enable the design of ontology-driven software programs tools and semantic web engines for intelligent access, management, retrieval and analysis of stress-related information. The derived knowledge will help identify important relationships between different concepts, and facilitate invention of more valid and consensual psychological tests and development of effective prevention and treatment strategies.