Hypertension in elderly individuals did not result in a difference in autonomic modulation and global heart rate variability compared to healthy controls after a 30-minute bout of aerobic exercise.
Observational
Does 30 min of aerobic physical exercise on a treadmill affect heart rate variability differently in hypertensive elderly individuals compared to healthy elderly controls?
A 30-minute session of aerobic exercise elicits similar autonomic modulation and heart rate variability responses in hypertensive and healthy elderly individuals.
Background: High blood pressure is an important public health problem due to its high prevalence, the difficulty to control it, and its high contribution to morbidity. A series of changes may be linked to the aging process, compromising cardiac conduction, and reducing cardiovascular baroreceptor function. Advancing age promotes a decline in heart rate variability and this decrease can increase the probability of cardiovascular disease. The aim of this study was to analyze the autonomic modulation of heart rate in hypertensive elderly individuals during and after a session of aerobic exercise, and to compare it with elderly individuals without cardiovascular or metabolic disease. Our study was a non-randomized controlled study with hypertensive elderly (HBP group) and elderly without cardiovascular and/or metabolic diseases (control group). Data on blood pressure and heart rate variability (HRV) were collected before, during, and after 30 min of aerobic physical exercise on a treadmill. There was a reduction in HF (ms2) and SD1 (ms) in the 5 min of recovery for the elderly in the control group. The elderly in the control group also had greater RMSSD and SD1 30 min post-exercise when compared to the initial mins of recovery. We concluded that there was no difference in autonomic modulation and global heart rate variability between elderly individuals without cardiovascular and metabolic diseases and hypertensive individuals after a bout of aerobic exercise. Elderly individuals without metabolic diseases showed a decrease in parasympathetic modulation and global variability between the time of rest and 5 min of recovery. However, up to 30 min of post-exercise recovery, they restored parasympathetic activity.
Andrade et al. (Wed,) conducted a observational in Hypertension. Hypertension vs. Elderly without cardiovascular and/or metabolic diseases was evaluated on Autonomic modulation of heart rate and global heart rate variability. Hypertension in elderly individuals did not result in a difference in autonomic modulation and global heart rate variability compared to healthy controls after a 30-minute bout of aerobic exercise.