Relative influence of age, resting heart rate and sedentary life style in short-term analysis of heart rate variability

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Abstract

In order to assess the relative influence of age, resting heart rate (HR) and sedentary life style, heart rate variability (HRV) was studied in two different groups. The young group (YG) consisted of 9 sedentary subjects aged 15 to 20 years (YG-S) and of 9 nonsedentary volunteers (YG-NS) also aged 15 to 20. The elderly sedentary group (ESG) consisted of 16 sedentary subjects aged 39 to 82 years. HRV was assessed using a short-term procedure (5 min). R-R variability was calculated in the time-domain by means of the root mean square successive differences. Frequency-domain HRV was evaluated by power spectrum analysis considering high frequency and low frequency bands. In the YG the effort tolerance was ranked in a bicycle stress test. HR was similar for both groups while ESG showed a reduced HRV compared with YG. Within each group, HRV displayed a negative correlation with HR. Although YG-NS had better effort tolerance than YG-S, their HR and HRV were not significantly different. We conclude that HRV is reduced with increasing HR or age, regardless of life style. The results obtained in our short-term study agree with others of longer duration by showing that age and HR are the main determinants of HRV. Our results do not support the idea that changes in HRV are related to regular physical activity.

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Most cited references 41

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Heart rate variability: Standards of measurement, physiological interpretation, and clinical use

M. Malik, J Bigger, A J Camm … (1996)

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Decreased heart rate variability and its association with increased mortality after acute myocardial infarction.

Robert E. Kleiger, J.Philip Miller, J.Thomas Bigger … (1987)

A high degree of heart rate (HR) variability is found in compensated hearts with good function, whereas HR variability can be decreased with severe coronary artery disease, congestive heart failure, aging and diabetic neuropathy. To test the hypothesis that HR variability is a predictor of long-term survival after acute myocardial infarction (AMI), the Holter tapes of 808 patients who survived AMI were analyzed. Heart rate variability was defined as the standard deviation of all normal RR intervals in a 24-hour continuous electrocardiogram recording made 11 +/- 3 days after AMI. In all patients demographic, clinical and laboratory variables were measured at baseline. Mean follow-up time was 31 months. Of all Holter variables measured, HR variability had the strongest univariate correlation with mortality. The relative risk of mortality was 5.3 times higher in the group with HR variability of less than 50 ms than the group with HR variability of more than 100 ms. HR variability remained a significant predictor of mortality after adjusting for clinical, demographic, other Holter features and ejection fraction. A hypothesis to explain this finding is that decreased HR variability correlates with increased sympathetic or decreased vagal tone, which may predispose to ventricular fibrillation.