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Influence of Heart Rate, Age, and Gender on Heart Rate Variability in Adolescents and Young Adults

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Advances in Medicine and Medical Research

Part of the book series: Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology ((CLEXBI,volume 1133))

Abstract

Key autonomic functions are in continuous development during adolescence which can be assessed using the heart rate variability (HRV). However, the influence of different demographic and physiological factors on HRV indices has not been fully explored in adolescents. In this study we aimed to assess the effect of age, gender, and heart rate on HRV indices in two age groups of healthy adolescents (age ranges, 13–16 and 17–20 years) and two groups of healthy young adults (21–24 and 25–30 years). We addressed the issue using 5-min ECG recordings performed in the sitting position in 255 male and female participants. Time, frequency, and informational domains of HRV were calculated. Changes in HRV indices were assessed using a multiple linear regression model to adjust for the effects of heart rate, age, and gender. We found that heart rate produced more significant effects on HRV indices than age or gender. There was a progressive reduction in HRV with increasing age. Sympathetic influence increased with age and parasympathetic influence progressively decreased with age. The influence of gender was manifest only in younger adolescents and young adults. In conclusion, age, gender, and particularly heart rate have a substantial influence on HRV indices, which ought to be considered to avoid biases in the study of the autonomic nervous system development. The lack of the gender-related effects on HRV indices in late adolescence could be related to non-completely achieved maturity of the autonomic mechanisms, which deserves further exploration.

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Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest in relation to this article.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Institute of Neurology and Neurosurgery of the Ministry of Health in Havana, Cuba.

Informed Consent

Written informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Neurology and Neurosurgery, Ministry of Health, Havana, Cuba

    Mario Estévez-Báez & Calixto Machado

  2. Faculty of Biology, Havana University, Havana, Cuba

    Claudia Carricarte-Naranjo, Andrés Machado-García & Claudia Sánchez Luaces

  3. Center for Sports Research, Havana, Cuba

    Javier Denis Jas-García

  4. Latin-American School of Medicine, Havana, Cuba

    Evelyn Rodríguez-Ríos

  5. Department of Medicine & Health Science, University of Sonora, Hermosillo, Mexico

    Julio Montes-Brown

  6. Faculty of Social Welfare and Health Sciences, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel

    Gerry Leisman

  7. National Institute for Brain and Rehabilitation Sciences, Nazareth, Israel

    Gerry Leisman

  8. Faculty ‘Manuel Fajardo’, University of the Medical Sciences, Havana, Cuba

    Gerry Leisman

  9. Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine, Neurosciences Critical Care Division, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Adam Schiavi

  10. Institute of Basic and Preclinical Sciences “Victoria de Girón”, Havana, Cuba

    Eduardo Arrufat Pié

Authors
  1. Mario Estévez-Báez
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  2. Claudia Carricarte-Naranjo
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  3. Javier Denis Jas-García
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  4. Evelyn Rodríguez-Ríos
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  8. Adam Schiavi
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  11. Eduardo Arrufat Pié
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Gerry Leisman .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Opole Medical School, Opole, Poland

    Mieczyslaw Pokorski

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Estévez-Báez, M. et al. (2018). Influence of Heart Rate, Age, and Gender on Heart Rate Variability in Adolescents and Young Adults. In: Pokorski, M. (eds) Advances in Medicine and Medical Research. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology(), vol 1133. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/5584_2018_292

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