Impacts of exposure to environmental air pollution on heart rate variability in young athletes

Introduction: Air pollution has been widely associated with morbidity and mortality by cardiopulmonary diseases. Heart Rate Variability (HRV), a marker of cardiovascular risk, has been employed in several studies to evaluate the effects of air pollution. Objectives: Evaluate HRV in young volunteers during rest and exercise in two different scenarios: in a park (1) and on a high traffic avenue (2). Methods: We evaluated 19 healthy male army soldiers at rest for 15 minutes and during running (4.7 miles) for 45 minutes. Recordings of R-R intervals were conducted with the Polar RS800 heart rate monitor. During the HRV data collection, we recorded the concentration of PM2.5 with a Dust-Track Monitor. The HRV analysis was done using Paired t-test or Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test. Results: The median concentrations PM2.5 in the circuit 1 and 2 were 23.50 (IQR: 8.0 – 39.0) and 62.0 (IQR: 37.50 – 103.3), respectively (p