Association of Sarcopenia with Heart Rate Variability

Abstract

Background: Sarcopenia and decreased heart rate variability (HRV) are reportedly associated with cardiometabolic risk factors. This study aimed to investigate the association between sarcopenia and HRV in patients who visited a health promotion center. Methods: We studied 19,753 participants over 50 years of age who visited the health promotion center of a university hospital between October 2017 and September 2020. Bioelectrical impedance analysis and heart rate variability tests were performed in all patients. Sarcopenia was evaluated by dividing the body weight by the appendicular skeletal muscle mass using bioelectrical impedance analysis. Sarcopenia was defined as one standard deviation below the sex-specific means of reference values obtained from adults aged 20-29 years. In addition to determining the association between sarcopenia and HRV, cardiometabolic risk factors and HRV parameters were set as risk factors and a multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed. Results: Sarcopenia was significantly associated with a reduced root mean square of successive normal-to-normal interval differences (RMSSD) (≤10 msec) in both sexes. Conclusion:The independent association between sarcopenia and RMSSD confirmed that sarcopenia is correlated with parasympathetic nerve reduction.