TY  -  JOUR
AU  -  Skakun, Oleksii
AU  -  Vandzhura, Ihor
AU  -  Vandzhura, Yaroslava
AU  -  Denina, Roksolana
T1  -  Impact of gender and age on heart rate variability
PY  -  2025
Y1  -  2025-05-01
DO  -  10.1723/4533.45354
JO  -  Journal of Sex- and Gender-Specific Medicine
JA  -  J Sex Gender Specif Med
VL  -  11
IS  -  2
SP  -  62
EP  -  68
PB  -  Il Pensiero Scientifico Editore
SN  -  2974-8623
Y2  -  2026/04/15
UR  -  http://dx.doi.org/10.1723/4533.45354
N2  -  Summary. Introduction. Heart rate variability (HRV) is an indirect indicator of the autonomic nervous system tone and serves as a marker of cardiovascular risk. HRV is affected by pathological, physiological, psychological, environmental, lifestyle, and genetic factors. Low HRV is associated with an increased risk of mortality. The aim of this study was to determine the influence of gender and age on time-domain parameters of HRV such as SDNN (standard deviation of NN intervals), SDNN index (mean of the standard deviations of all the NN intervals for each 5-minute segment of the entire recording), SDANN (standard deviation of the average NN intervals), rMSSD (root mean square of successive RR interval differences), and pNN50 (percentage of successive RR intervals differing by more than 50 ms). Methods. The study included ambulatory ECG recordings from 380 patients. The Labtech Cardiospy software was used to analyze each recording. Recordings from patients with significant cardiac abnormalities or known autonomic disorders were excluded from the study. Results and discussion. The median age of the patients was 42.0 [31.0-59.0] years. There were 188 (49.5%) men and 192 (50.5%) women in the study. In all patients, SDNN was 146.0 [123.0-178.0] ms (2.5-97.5 percentiles, 90.0-226.0 ms), SDNNi was 54.0 [45.0-67.0] ms (2.5-97.5 percentiles, 28.0-98.0 ms), SDANN was 135.0 [113.0-163.0] ms (2.5-97.5 percentiles, 79.0-222.0 ms), rMSSD was 28.0 [21.0-39.5] ms (2.5-97.5 percentiles, 12.0-78.0 ms), pNN50 was 6.5 [2.8-13.3] % (2.5-97.5 percentiles, 0.3-31.6). SDNNi was lower in females than in males (51.0 [42.5-62.0] ms vs 56.5 [48.0-71.5] ms, p <0.001). Also, SDANN was lower in females than in males (131.5 [112.0-153.5] ms vs 138.5 [113.0-174.5] ms, p=0.041). There was no significant difference in SDNN, rMSSD, and pNN50 between males and females. SDNN, SDNNi, SDANN, rMSSD, and pNN50 decreased with age. There was negative correlation between age and SDNN (r=-0.279, p <0.001), age and SDNNi (r=-0.536, p <0.001), age and SDANN (r=-0.236, p <0.001), age and rMSSD (r=-0.456, p <0.001), age and pNN50 (r=-0.482, p <0.001).Conclusions. Women have lower values SDNNi and SDANN than men. SDNN, SDNNi, SDANN, rMSSD, and pNN50 decrease with age. Low values of the time-domain parameters of HRV in women and elderly should be interpreted with caution. The time-domain parameters of HRV corrected for gender and age should be considered for more accurate evaluation.
ER  -