In the present invention, a photoplethysmography
signal corresponding to the pulse of a subject is acquired in
time series by a sensor (S101). On the basis of a
pulse waveform represented by the time-series photoplethysmography
signal, a feature amount including at least the interval, amplitude, and baseline of the
pulse waveform is extracted for each beat (S104). On the basis of the
pulse waveform, a respiratory period corresponding to each
respiration of the subject is identified (S107). The respiratory period is a period including a plurality of consecutive beats. From the pulse waveform, a variation amount of the interval, a variation amount of the amplitude, and a variation amount of the baseline in an assessment segment that has been set corresponding to one or more of consecutive respiratory periods are calculated (S108). On the basis of the variation amount of the interval, the variation amount of the amplitude, and the variation amount of the baseline in the assessment segment, an
exacerbation severity, which numerically represents the degree of
exacerbation of a
respiratory disease of the subject, is calculated (S109, S110). Thus, the degree of
exacerbation of the
respiratory disease of the subject is assessed.