Psychosocial factors and heart rate variability in healthy women

Objective: This study was conducted to investigate associations between psy chosocial risk factors, including social isolation, anger and depressive sy mptoms, and heart rate variability in healthy women. Methods: The study gro up consisted of 300 healthy women (median age 57.5 years) who were represen tative of women living in the greater Stockholm area. For the measurement o f social isolation, a condensed version of the Interpersonal Support Evalua tion List was used and household size assessed. Anger was measured by the a nger scales previously used in the Framingham study and depressive symptoms by a questionnaire derived from Pearlin. Health behaviors were measured by means of standard questionnaires. From 24-hour ambulatory electrocardiogra phic monitoring, both time and frequency domain measures were obtained: SDN N index (mean of the SDs of all normal to normal intervals for all 5-minute segments of the entire recording), VLF power (very low frequency power), L F power (low frequency power), HF power (high frequency power), and the LF/ HF ratio (low frequency by high frequency ratio) were computed. Results: So cial isolation and inability to relieve anger by talking to others were ass ociated with decreased heart rate variability, Depressive symptoms were rel ated only to the LF/HF ratio. Adjusting for age, menopausal status, exercis e and smoking habits, history of hypertension, and BMI did not substantiall y change the results. Conclusions: These findings suggest heart rate variab ility to be a mediating mechanism that could explain at least part of the r eported associations between social isolation, suppressed anger, and health outcomes.