UDC

612.821:612.172.2-053.6

Authors

Natalia V. Efimova*, Inna V. Myl’nikova*
*East-Siberian Institution of Medical and Ecological Research (Angarsk, Russian Federation)
Corresponding author: Natalia Efimova, address: 12a mikrorayon 3, Angarsk, 665827, Irkutskaya obl., Russian Federation; e-mail: medecolab@inbox.ru

Abstract

Responses of the autonomic nervous system to functional loads in people with different levels of personal anxiety have not been studied sufficiently. Our research involved 124 adolescents aged between 11 and 17 years. We determined their personal anxiety (using Spielberger–Khanin State- Trait Anxiety Inventory) and heart rate variability at baseline, during orthostatic test and mental load (mental arithmetic). The subjects were divided into groups with low, moderate and high anxiety; correlation dependences between the level of personal anxiety and parameters of heart rate variability were calculated. To determine the degree of influence of personal anxiety on heart rate variability, we calculated the relative strength of association using the odds ratio and 95 % confidence intervals in each group. At baseline, personal anxiety is primarily associated with the duration range of R-R intervals (r_sp = –0.22; p = 0.012) and heart rate variability component in the very low frequency range (r_sp = –0.32; p = 0.041). The nature and severity of the autonomic nervous system response to functional loads in adolescents vary depending on the level of anxiety. The most pronounced is the increase in sympathetic activity during the mental load. Subjects with high personal anxiety showed increased total heart rate variability as well as vagal and sympathetic activity during the orthostatic test and greater ultra-low frequency component of heart rate variability during the mental load. Subjects with low level of anxiety demonstrated increased sympathetic activity during functional loads: at the orthostatic test, due to the ultra-low frequency component of heart rate variability and at the mental test, only due to the low-frequency component.

Keywords

adolescents, personal anxiety, heart rate variability, orthostatic test, mental load

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