Premium
Daily environmental differences in blood pressure and heart rate variability in healthy premenopausal women
Author(s) -
James Gary D.,
Bovbjerg Dana H.,
Hill Leah A.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
american journal of human biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.559
H-Index - 81
eISSN - 1520-6300
pISSN - 1042-0533
DOI - 10.1002/ajhb.22609
Subject(s) - blood pressure , heart rate , medicine , ambulatory , diastole , coefficient of variation , hum , ambulatory blood pressure , cardiology , endocrinology , physical therapy , zoology , biology , chemistry , art , chromatography , performance art , art history
Objectives As daily environments change, behavior and activity also change and as blood pressure (BP) and heart rate (HR) are allostatically tied to these factors, one might expect that environments that elicit the greatest behavioral/activity variation should also evince the highest BP and HR variability [standard deviation (SD) or coefficient of variation (CV)]. The purpose of this study was to evaluate this premise. Methods Two hundred and six women (age = 37.6 ± 9.1 years) wore an ambulatory BP monitor on a midweek workday. All worked in clerical, technical, or professional positions. Ambulatory BP and HR Means, SDs and CVs at work (11 AM–3 PM), home (∼6–10 PM) and during sleep (∼10 PM–6 AM) were compared using repeated measures ANCOVA. Results Mean BP and HR decreased from work and home to sleep [121 ± 11, 120 ± 11 vs. 107 ± 12 systolic; 82 ± 10, 80 ± 11 vs. 66 ± 11 diastolic; 79 ± 12, 80 ± 12 vs. 68 ± 11 HR (all P < 0.001)], while the CV of systolic and diastolic BP increased [0.06 ± 0.02, 0.07 ± 0.02 vs. 0.08 ± 0.03 systolic; 0.09 ± 0.03, 0.10 ± 0.04 vs. 0.12 ± 0.05 diastolic ( P < 0.001)]. The HR SD decreased during sleep [8.1 ± 3.8, 8.2 ± 3.8 vs. 6.9 ± 3.2 ( P < 0.001)]. Conclusions HR variability follows the expected variability pattern with behavior and activity, whereas BP does not. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 27:136–138, 2015. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.