Effects of aerobic exercise on the heart rate variability in health elderly people living in hypoxia areas at high altitude / 中华老年医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To assess the effect of aerobic exercise on the cardiovascular autonomic regulation in healthy elderly people living in hypoxia areas at high altitude,through observing the 24 hours of heart rate variability(HRV) and its changes in HRV before,during and after incremental exercise.Methods 60 healthy elderly(＞ 60 years old)living in Qinghai-Tibet plateau(altitude ＞ 2 600 m)were selected and divided into aerobic exercise group(practicing Tibetan traditional dance in long term,n=30)and control group (lacking aerobic exercise,n =30).Blood pressure,heart rate (HR) and oxygen saturation (SO2) were measured.The time domain parameters of HRV were detected by 24 hour Holter test.The time domains of HRV before,during and after incremental exercise were observed by Marquette 2000 treadmill exercise test.Results Systolic blood pressure,diastolic blood pressure and heart rate were lower(t=2.475,2.295,2.099,all P＜0.05),and SO2 and SO2/HR ratio was higher(t=2.907,2.210,P＜0.05)in aerobic exercise group than in control group.As compared with control group,the aerobic exercise group showed that the changes in SDNN were increased significantly during and 10 minutes after incremental exercise(both P＜0.05),and RMSSD and PNN50 were significantly decreased during and 10 minutes after exercise(both P＜0.05).Conclusions Regular aerobic exercise in the elderly people living in hypoxia areas at high altitude can enhance oxygen uptake and utilization,increase the heart rate variability,reduce heart rate and blood pressure,and improve the cardiac autonomic function.