European Journal of Molecular & Clinical Medicine

Heart rate variability (HRV) as a measurement of autonomic function assumes great clinical
importance. It is well known that particular patterns of body fat distribution increase coronary
heart disease risk both in adults & children. While frank obesity is associated with reduced
HRV, indicative of poorer autonomic nervous system (ANS) function, the association
between body mass index (BMI) and HRV is less clear. The dynamic autonomic responses
during exercise can be measured to give actionable information for training by analysis of the
ECG to determine heart rate variability. While application of HRV has been applied to
predict sudden cardiac death and diabetic neuropathy in assessing disease progression. The
study revealed the changes in HRV in resting condition and also after a single bout of sub
maximal treadmill exercise (50% of VO2 max.) among males and females in the age group of
17-25 years at rest and the correlations between the HRV parameters at rest and after the
exercise with BMI and WHR in the subjects. An observational cross sectional study was
conducted in the Physiology Department of R.G. Kar Medical College, Kolkata, India on 60
subjects (n=60) of both sexes (30 males and 30 females) in the 17-25 years age, participated
in this study. Their WHR and BMI were measured and HRV was recorded during rest and
immediately after exercise by digital Polyrite. Result showed that the HRV of male were
more than in female in resting condition. After submaximal exercise the HRV value of males
were more than their respective resting HRV values though it was not significant and in the
females, post-exercise HRV was significantly more than their respective resting HRV. This
study shows that females have higher parasympathetic activity than males. There is an
association between WHR and BMI and HRV in healthy female persons, which shows that
there is an increase in LF/HF(low frequency & high frequency) of values among males and
females after a single bout of sub-maximal exercise though not significant in case of males
but significant in case of females.