Utilization of electrodermal activity in nursing research: A mapping review.

The review did not assess the quality of the included studies, so it cannot show which studies were methodologically sound. Many included studies were small: median 40 participants, and 52 of 89 primary studies had 50 or fewer participants. The largest age-health group was healthy adults (27 articles), so it says little about patients with illness. Only English and Japanese articles were included, so studies in other languages may be missing. The definition of nursing research depended on journal, first author, or affiliation, so relevant interdisciplinary studies may have been missed. The protocol was not preregistered. Measurement sites and conditions were inconsistent and often not reported, which affects comparability.

Do not read this mapping review as evidence that electrodermal activity is a valid clinical tool for detecting pain or stress. It catalogued mostly small, heterogeneous nursing studies, did not assess study quality, and many studies used healthy adults rather than clinical patients.