Physical activity, body mass index and heart rate variability-based stress and recovery in 16 275 Finnish employees: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

BackgroundPhysical inactivity, overweight, and work-related stress are major concerns today. Psychological stress causes physiological responses such as reduced heart rate variability (HRV), owing to attenuated parasympathetic and/or increased sympathetic activity in cardiac autonomic control. This study’s purpose was to investigate the relationships between physical activity (PA), body mass index (BMI), and HRV-based stress and recovery on workdays, among Finnish employees.MethodsThe participants in this cross-sectional study were 16 275 individuals (6863 men and 9412 women; age 18–65 years; BMI 18.5–40.0 kg/m2). Assessments of stress, recovery and PA were based on HRV data from beat-to-beat R-R interval recording (mainly over 3 days). The validated HRV-derived variables took into account the dynamics and individuality of HRV. Stress percentage (the proportion of stress reactions, workday and working hours), and stress balance (ratio between recovery and stress reactions, sleep) describe the amount of physiological stress and recovery, respectively. Variables describing the intensity (i.e. magnitude of recognized reactions) of physiological stress and recovery were stress index (workday) and recovery index (sleep), respectively. Moderate to vigorous PA was measured and participants divided into the following groups, based on calculated weekly PA: inactive (0 min), low (0 < 150 min), medium (150–300 min), and high (>300 min). BMI was calculated from self-reported weight and height. Linear models were employed in the main analyses.ResultsHigh PA was associated with lower stress percentages (during workdays and working hours) and stress balance. Higher BMI was associated with higher stress index, and lower stress balance and recovery index. These results were similar for men and women (P < 0.001 for all).ConclusionIndependent of age and sex, high PA was associated with a lower amount of stress on workdays. Additionally, lower BMI was associated with better recovery during sleep, expressed by a greater amount and magnitude of recovery reactions, which suggests that PA in the long term resulting in improved fitness has a positive effect on recovery, even though high PA may disturb recovery during the following night. Obviously, several factors outside of the study could also affect HRV-based stress.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12889-016-3391-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Academic stress-induced changes in Th1- and Th2-cytokine response

“…On the other hand, researchers also suggested that certain local responses and under certain conditions, stress hormones actually may boost regional immune responses by increasing the production rate of the pro-inflammatory cytokines such as Interleukin-6 (IL-6), Tumor necrosis factor - alpha (TNF-α) and Interferon (IFN)-gamma (Maes et al, 1998, Elenkov and Chrousos, 2002). Moreover, recent studies indicated that psychological stress causes sympathetic responses in the autonomic nervous system leading to several effects such as reducing heart rate (Föhr et al, 2016, Lee et al, 2014).…”

Prolonged bouts of sedentary time and cardiac autonomic function in midlife

“…Decline in HRV with advancing age occurs because of the normal aging process which causes a decline in cardiac vagal modulation reducing the parasympathetic activity . Higher levels of PA, especially moderate to vigorous PA (MVPA), and better cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) have been found associated with higher HRV, lower resting heart rate (HR), and better heart rate recovery (HRR) after exercise . In addition, it has been suggested that PA has a protective role in the age‐related decline of HRV …”

“…[14][15][16] Higher levels of PA, especially moderate to vigorous PA (MVPA), and better cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) have been found associated with higher HRV, lower resting heart rate (HR), and better heart rate recovery (HRR) after exercise. [17][18][19][20] In addition, it has been suggested that PA has a protective role in the age-related decline of HRV. 21,22 Unfavorable changes in autonomic regulation, which can be assessed with HRV, 11 might be attributable to cardiovascular effects resulting from too much sitting.…”

Physical Workload Tracking Using Human Activity Recognition with Wearable Devices

“…A common element among the physical effort assessment systems is HR tracking. HR has a well-known relation with mental stress, as evidenced in [9][10][11][12]. The methods to obtain information about heart activity must be reliable and must allow their implementation using non-invasive devices to be relevant in practice.…”