Sports practice is related to parasympathetic activity in adolescents

• Published in: Revista Paulista de Pediatria Vol. 33; no. 2; pp. 174 - 180
• Main Authors: Cayres, Suziane Ungari, Vanderlei, Luiz Carlos Marques, Rodrigues, Aristides Machado, Silva, Manuel João Coelho E, Codogno, Jamile Sanches, Barbosa, Maurício Fregonesi, Fernandes, Rômulo Araújo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English; Portuguese
• Published: Brazil Sociedade de Pediatria de São Paulo 01-06-2015
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adolescente; Cardiovascular Physiological Phenomena; Child; Cross-Sectional Studies; Espessura mediointimal carotídea; Female; Frequência cardíaca; Humans; Male; Original; Parasympathetic Nervous System - physiology; Prática esportiva; Sistema nervoso autônomo; Sports - physiology; Heart rate; Sports practice; Autonomic nervous system; Frequência cardíaca; Espessura mediointimal carotídea; Adolescent; Prática esportiva; Sistema nervoso autônomo; Carotid intima‐media thickness; Adolescente
• ISSN: 0103-0582; 1984-0462; 1984-0462
• DOI: 10.1016/j.rpped.2014.09.002

To analyze the relationship among sports practice, physical education class, habitual physical activity and cardiovascular risk in adolescents.
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. Body weight, 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.
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.
Sport practice was related to higher heart rate variability at rest.