Sports practice is related to parasympathetic activity in adolescents

• Main Authors: Suziane Ungari Cayres, Luiz Carlos Marques Vanderlei, Aristides Machado Rodrigues, Manuel João Coelho e Silva, Jamile Sanches Codogno, Maurício Fregonesi Barbosa, Rômulo Araújo Fernandes
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Sociedade de Pediatria de São Paulo 2015-06-01
• Series: Revista Paulista de Pediatria
• Subjects: Frequência cardíaca; Sistema nervoso autônomo; Espessura mediointimal carotídea; Adolescente; Prática esportiva
• Online Access: http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0103-05822015000200174&lng=en&tlng=en

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the relationship among sports practice, physical education class, habitual physical activity and cardiovascular risk in adolescents. METHODS: Cross-sectional study with 120 schoolchildren (mean: 11.7±0.7 years old), with no regular use of medicines. Sports practice and physical education classes were assessed through face-to-face interview, while habitual physical activity was assessed by pedometers. Bodyweight, height and height-cephalic trunk were used to estimate maturation. The following variables were measured: body fatness, blood pressure, resting heart rate, blood flow velocity, intima-media thickness (carotid and femoral) and heart rate variability (mean between consecutive heartbeats and statistical index in the time domain that show the autonomic parasympathetic nervous system activity root-mean by the square of differences between adjacent normal R-R intervals in a time interval). Statistical treatment used Spearman correlation adjusted by sex, ethnicity, age, body fatness and maturation. RESULTS: Independently of potential confounders, sports practice was positively related to autonomic parasympathetic nervous system activity (β=0.039 [0.01; 0.76]). On the other hand, the relationship between sport practice and mean between consecutive heartbeats (β=0,031 [-0.01; 0.07]) was significantly mediated by biological maturation. CONCLUSIONS: Sport practice was related to higher heart rate variability at rest.