HRV AND HRT
Heart rate variability in an ageing population and its association with lifestyle and cardiovascular risk factors: results of the SAPALDIA study
1 Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine, University of Basel, Steinengraben 49, 4051 Basel, Switzerland; 2 Harvard School of Public Health, Department of Environmental Health, Landmark Center, Room 415, 665 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA; 3 Laboratoire de Physiologie Clinique et de l'Exercice, Université Jean Monnet, CHU Nord—Niveau 6, 42055 Saint-Etienne, France; 4 Centre Valaisan de Pneumologie, 3962 Montana, Switzerland; 5 Institute for Clinical Chemistry, University Hospital Zürich, Rämistr. 100, 8091 Zürich, Switzerland; 6 Zürcher Höhenklinik Wald, 8639 Faltigberg, Switzerland; 7 Service of Pulmonology, University Hospital Lausanne, Rue de Bugnon, 1011 Lausanne, Switzerland; 8 Harvard Medical School, Brigham and Women's Hospital, 181 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA; 9 Division of General Internal Medicine, University Hospitals, 24 rue Micheli-du-Crest, 1211 Geneva 4, Switzerland
Aims (i) To report associations between cardiovascular risk factors and heart rate variability (HRV) in a general population and (ii) to provide normal values for various HRV measurements in a healthy European general population sample aged 
50.
Methods and results Twenty-four-hour electrocardiograms were recorded in 1742 randomly selected SAPALDIA (Swiss cohort study on Air Pollution and Lung Diseases in Adults) participants aged 50. In multivariate regression analyses, women (n=895) had a 6.1% lower standard deviation of all normal RR (NN) intervals (SDNN), a 11.4% lower total power (TP), and a 27.2% lower low-frequency (LF) power than men (n=847). Per unit increase in BMI, SDNN decreased by 0.7% and TP decreased by 1.2%. Persons with high blood pressure had a 9.2% lower LF than normotensive persons and current smokers a 15.5% lower LF than never smokers. Each hour of heavy physical exercise was associated with a 2.0% increase in SDNN, a 3.6% increase in the high frequency (HF) range power and a 4.2% increase in LF power. Higher levels of uric acid, high-sensitive C-reactive protein and non-HDL-cholesterol were associated with lower TP, HF and LF. Percentiles of TP and LF/HF as a function of age were calculated for an asymptomatic subsample of participants (n=499) free of cardioactive medications.
Conclusion Heart rate variability in a general population sample shows expected associations with all known cardiovascular risk factors, although not identically for all HRV domains. Together with our percentile estimates for HRV as a function of age, these findings could assist scientists in interpreting 24 h HRV values and factors influencing them in an ageing population.
Key Words: Heart rate variability, Autonomic nervous system, Epidemiology
* Corresponding author. Tel: +41 61 267 60 66; fax: +41 61 267 61 90. E-mail address: denise.felber{at}unibas.ch
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