Stress is nearly ubiquitous in everyday life; however, it imposes a tremendous burden worldwide by acting as a risk factor for most physical and mental diseases. The effects of geographic environments on stress are supported by multiple theories acknowledging that natural environments act as a stress buffer and provide deeper and quicker restorative effects than most urban settings. However, little is known about how the temporalities of exposure to complex urban environments (duration, frequency and sequences of exposures) experienced in various locations – as shaped by people’s daily activities – affect daily and chronic stress levels. The potential modifying effect of activity patterns (ie, time, place, activity type and social company) on the environment–stress relationship also remains poorly understood. Moreover, most observational studies relied quasi-exclusively on self-reported stress measurements, which may not accurately reflect the individual physiological embodiment of stress. The FragMent study aims to assess the extent to which the spatial and temporal characteristics of exposures to environments in daily life, along with individuals’ activity patterns, influence physiological and psychological stress.

A sample of 2000 adults aged 18–65 and residing in the country of Luxembourg completed a traditional and a map-based questionnaire to collect data on their perceived built, natural and social environments, regular mobility, activity patterns and chronic stress at baseline. A subsample of 200 participants engaged in a 15-day geographically explicit ecological momentary assessment (GEMA) survey, combining a smartphone-enabled global positioning system (GPS) tracking and the repeated daily assessment of the participants’ momentary stress, activities and environmental perceptions. Participants further complete multiple daily vocal tasks to collect data on vocal biomarkers of stress. Analytical methods will include machine learning models for stress prediction from vocal features, the use of geographic information systems (GIS) to quantify dynamic environmental exposures in space and time, and statistical models to disentangle the environment–stress relationships.

Ethical approval (LISER REC/2021/024.FRAGMENT/4-5-9-10) was granted by the Research Ethics Committee of the Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER), Luxembourg. Results will be disseminated via conferences, peer-review journal papers and comic strips. All project outcomes will be made available at https://www.fragmentproject.eu/.

Stress is omnipresent in our everyday lives and a key risk factor for our physical and mental health. Yet little is known about the impact of geographic life environments, linked to our daily activities and mobility patterns, on our momentary and daily stress levels.

We propose this review to gather evidence on the spatio-temporal determinants of momentary or daily stress in studies using ecological momentary assessment (EMA) or experience sampling methods (ESM) in addition to global positioning systems (GPS) tracking. We will focus on the spatio-temporal definition and modelling of environmental exposures accounting for participant daily activities and mobility patterns and their association with stress.

This scoping review will follow the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses framework for scoping reviews (2018). We will search the PubMed/Medline, Web of Science, PsycInfo and Scopus databases. We will include papers using EMA or ESM and GPS measuring chronic, daily or momentary stress as an outcome; these methods are also referred to as geographically-explicit ecological momentary assessment.

Articles published from January 2000–June 2025 will be screened. Two independent reviewers will screen titles and abstracts to agree on the inclusion of articles. No geographical or population limitation will be imposed.

This study is a scoping review based on previously published and publicly available literature. It does not involve the collection of primary data, human participants, or the processing of personal or sensitive information. Therefore, ethical approval is not required in accordance with institutional and international research ethics guidelines. The results will be submitted in peer-reviewed journals and presented at international conferences.