Effect of age and postural related changes on cardiac autonomic function in the pre-menopausal and post-menopausal women

Heart rate variability (HRV) plays an important role in regulation of cardiac functioning during the menstrual and menopausal stages of women life. There are limited studies which considered the combined effect of ageing and postural changes on HRV of women. The objective of this study is: 1) to analyse and reveal the cardiac autonomic status of pre-menopausal and post-menopausal women; 2) to determine the effect of age and change in postures on autonomic modulations of heart rate of women. HRV dataset of 74 pre-menopausal women during follicular phase and 20 post-menopausal women in lying and standing postures are used for HRV analysis. The results proved that age and physical activities affect the HRV in post-menopausal and pre-menopausal women. It is shown using linear and nonlinear methods of HRV analysis that increase in age along with change in postures increases the sympathetic and decreases the parasympathetic activity in post-menopausal as compared to the pre-menopausal women.