Key result
Childhood obesity is linked to reduced parasympathetic activity and lower RMSSD vs eutrophic children.
Why the study?
Does childhood obesity alter cardiac autonomic modulation in children compared to eutrophic controls?
Meta-Analysis (n=915)
Does childhood obesity alter cardiac autonomic modulation in children compared to eutrophic controls?
Standardized Mean Difference: -0.46 (95% CI -0.61–-0.31)
p-value: p=<0.00001
Childhood obesity is associated with altered cardiac autonomic modulation, specifically a reduction in parasympathetic activity, as evidenced by decreased RMSSD and pNN50 and increased resting heart rate.
May warrant autonomic monitoring in obese children; hypothesis-generating for prospective trials on cardiovascular risk.
This study aimed to verify the influence of childhood obesity on the regulation of cardiac autonomic modulation through the heart rate variability of obese and eutrophic children. The study consisted of a systematic review and meta-analysis in five PubMed, Scielo, Cochrane Library, BVS/Lilacs and Medline databases. Of the 60 articles found, 15 met the pre-established criteria. These studies were submitted to evaluation of methodological quality and risk of bias, and the Joanna Briggs Institute Critical Appraisal Checklist for Prevalence Studies (JBI) was applied. Meta-analysis was performed with the Review Manager 5.3 software for variables related to the alteration of cardiac autonomic modulation. Fifteen studies were used for meta-analysis, all were classified with high methodological quality (7 to 9 points), 13 presented results showing alteration of autonomic cardiac modulation in obese children in comparison with eutrophic children, and only two presented indicatives that refute this hypothesis. The present study identified reduction in the parasympathetic activity of the obese group in relation to the eutrophic group through the variables studied. The use of RMSSD, pNN50 and SDNN variables is recommended in future studies, as their results were significant for this meta-analysis.
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Santos et al. (2018) conducted a meta-analysis in Childhood obesity (n=915). Childhood obesity vs. Eutrophic children was evaluated on RMSSD (Root mean square of sum of the differences between the iRR) (SMD -0.46, 95% CI -0.61 to -0.31, p=<0.00001). Childhood obesity was associated with a significant reduction in parasympathetic activity compared to eutrophic children, as evidenced by a lower RMSSD (SMD -0.46).
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