Hypertension Detection Through Speech Analysis Using Machine Learning-Based Approaches with the Identification of BP Sensitive Phonemes and Features

There are certain difficulties and unpleasant issues related to conventional diagnostic tools. These factors tilted the researchers toward finding an alternative non-invasive way of diagnosis. This alternate approach usually involves physiological and lifestyle-related data. The non-invasive tools are more convenient for common people as they are user-friendly and have no side effects. At the same time, they are cost-effective as well. The non-invasive diagnosis is also preferred by the people who live in places where medical facilities are not abundant. This study concentrates on detecting a person as hypertensive by analyzing certain parameters in speech using machine learning approaches. We identify some phonemes and features of speech that are more sensitive to capture the distortions in speech due to hypertension. Four different machine learning methods involving both classical and state-of-the-art methods in our study show the effectiveness of both types of machine learning methods in different dimensions. The study shows inspiring results in terms of prediction accuracy ( similar to 95%) as well as identifying a minimal set of hypertension-sensitive features. It is also found that when we combine the predictions of both classical and state-of-the-art methods, the result gives more reliable predictions.