Association of Heart Rate Variability with Cardiovascular Disease risk in Healthy adults: Framingham Heart study
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Juliana Lefano
College:
The College of Health Professions and Human Services
Major:
Physical Therapy
Faculty Research Advisor(s):
Alka Bishnoi
Abstract:
Background: Heart rate variability (HRV) is the variance estimated between each heart beat and can be utilized to assess autonomic nervous system function (1). The Framingham Risk Assessment (FRA) tool investigates the risk factors associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD), which is a leading cause of mortality in older adults (2). Previous research has shown that HRV is significantly associated with hypertension risk in hypertensive and normotensive adults (3). However, the association between HRV and FRA variables is poorly understood in healthy adults.
Objective: The objective of this study is to explore the relationship between HRV and FRA variables including CVD risk score, hypertension risk and heart age in healthy adults, and if low HRV can serve as an early indicator for CVD risk. We hypothesized that high HRV would be correlated with low CVD risk, low heart age, low hypertension risk.
Methods: In this retrospective cohort study, we had 38 healthy adults (49.34±19.85 years) including 15 females with body mass index (BMI) of 23.63±4.02 kg/m2, waist circumference of 85.96±10.43 cm, resting HR of 86.47±14.55 bpm and mean arterial pressure of 96.36±10.86 mmHg. Participants came to the lab one time and wore a Hexoskin smart shirt. Data was collected using 1- lead ECG equipped in the Hexoskin smart shirt (Carre Technologies Inc., Quebec, Canada), which has been demonstrated for both accuracy and reliability in HR measurements. A time-domain variable was studied: standard deviation of normal RR intervals (SDNN) to measure HRV, extracted through Kubios HRV analyzer. FRA variables were calculated using the resting blood pressure, age, gender, BMI, previous history of diabetes, hypertension, parental hypertension and smoking (2). For statistical analysis, we did Pearson's correlation analysis between SDNN and CVD risk score, heart age, hypertension risk at 4, 2 and 1 year.
Results: The results of the study showed association between SDNN and CVD risk score (r = -0.59, p=0.0001), SDNN and heart age (r= -0.73, p