This study provides reference percentile values for heart rate variability parameters in healthy, active young adults, demonstrating greater parasympathetic activity in athletes compared to non-athletes.
This study analyzed Heart Rate Variability in a large sample of active young subjects within a narrow age range (18 to 25), using time and frequency domain methods and a Poincaré plot. Heart rate was recorded (beat to beat) for 30 minutes at rest in 200 healthy subjects divided into 4 groups: 50 sportsmen (20.54 ± 1.52 years); 50 active men (21.22 ± 1.31 years); 50 sportswomen (20.10 ± 1.87 years) and 50 active women (20.92 ± 1.87 years). Significant differences were found for most parameters between athletes and active subjects (male and female) but not between genders. Percentile distributions were provided for all parameters (according to gender and physical activity level) to be used as references in future researches.
Corrales et al. (Sun,) studied this question.