Age Effect on Autonomic Cardiovascular Control in Pilots
Abstract
The autonomic cardiovascular control was determined as a function of age in 66 military pilots and in 39 referents, both groups aged from 20 to 55 years.. It was assessed by time-domain and frequency-domain heart rate variability (HRV) measures and with some HRV- derived indices. Most sensitive to aging process from time-domain HRV measures revealed to be short-term variability and time-domain index, and from frequency-domain HRV measures frequency-domain index. The activity of both ANS branches was found to decline with age, but a different extent of decrease of sympathetic as compared to parasympathetic activity was observed: sympathetic activity reflected by the spectral power of the R-R intervals in the temperature - mediated spectral frequency band (0.01-0.05 Hz) decline more slowly than parasympathetic activity reflected by respiratory sinus arrhythmia - mediated spectral frequency band (0.15-0.50 Hz). As well as such age-desynchronized autonomic cardiovascular control was found only in military pilots but not in referents it is concluded that the aging process in pilots is accelerated due to repetitive and prolonged exposure to persisting stress, caused by the compulsory underload (substantial reduction of flying tasks and physical exercises coinciding with personal interviews). Although the computed Overall Health Risk values in both groups were not substantially deviated from "normal", those in military pilots was significantly higher.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Aug 01, 2000
- Accession Number
- ADP010576
Entities
People
- M. Vuko
- R. Nantcheva
- R. Nikolova
- S. Danev