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REVIEW article

Front. Physiol.
Sec. Exercise Physiology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fphys.2024.1430458
This article is part of the Research Topic New Perspectives and Insights on Heart Rate Variability in Exercise and Sports View all 3 articles

Update: Factors influencing heart rate variability - A narrative review

Provisionally accepted
Stefan Sammito Stefan Sammito 1,2*Beatrice Thielmann Beatrice Thielmann 2Irina Böckelmann Irina Böckelmann 2
  • 1 German Air Force Centre of Aerospace Medicine, Cologne, Germany
  • 2 Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg, Magdeburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Objective: Heart rate variability (HRV) is an important non-invasive marker for the assessment of an organism's autonomic physiological regulatory pathways. Lower HRV has been shown to correlate with increased mortality. HRV is influenced by various factors or diseases. The aim of this narrative review is to describe the current state of knowledge on factors influencing HRV and their significance for interpretation. Methods: The narrative review only included reviews, meta-analyses, and cohort studies which were published until 2021. HRV confounders were grouped into four categories (non-influenceable physiological factors, diseases, influenceable lifestyle factors and external factors). Results: The review found that HRV was decreased not only in non-influenceable physiological factors (e.g. age, gender, ethnicity) but also in connection with various number of acute and chronic diseases (e.g. psychiatric diseases, myocardial infarction, heart failure), influenceable lifestyle factors (e.g. alcohol abuse, overweight, physical activity), and external factors (e.g. heat, noise, shift work, harmful- and hazardous substances). Conclusions: In order to improve the quality of HRV studies and to ensure accurate interpretation, it is recommended that confounders be taken into account in future diagnostic measurements or measurements in the workplace (e.g. as part of health promotion measures) in order to counteract data bias.

    Keywords: Autonomic Nervous System, Heart Rate, analysis, sympathetic, Parasympathicus

    Received: 09 May 2024; Accepted: 22 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Sammito, Thielmann and Böckelmann. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Stefan Sammito, German Air Force Centre of Aerospace Medicine, Cologne, Germany

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.