Effects of gender and age on heart rate variability in healthy individuals and in persons after sudden cardiac arrest.
The purpose of this study was to describe the effects of gender and age on heart rate variability (HRV) in healthy volunteers (n = 111; 40 men and 71 women) and in persons after sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) (n = 95; 79 men and 16 women). Frequency-domain measurements and six time-domain measurements of HRV (SDANN, 24-hour SD, SD, RMSSD, RR50, and %RR50) were taken. Two-factor analysis of variance was performed. In general, HRV was significantly lower in healthy women compared with healthy men in all the time-domain and frequency-domain variables except for the high-frequency components, RMSSD, RR50, and %RR50. There were no significant gender differences in the SCA sample. All the time-domain and frequency-domain measurements decreased with age in the healthy sample, but only the frequency-domain measurements decreased with age in the SCA sample.
Cowan
M J
MJ
Department of Physiological Nursing, University of Washington, Seattle 98195.
Pike
K
K
Burr
R L
RL
D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging; D015716:Electrocardiography, Ambulatory; D005260:Female; D006323:Heart Arrest / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006339:Heart Rate; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012016:Reference Values; D012727:Sex Characteristics