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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Little Rock, Arkansas » Arkansas Children's Nutrition Center » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #186786
Title: SKIPPING BREAKFAST: GENDER EFFECTS ON RESTING HEART RATE MEASURES IN PREADOLESCENTS

Author
item PIVIK, RUDOLPH - ACNC/UALR
item DYKMAN, ROSCOE - UNIV OF LOUISVILLE
item TENNAL, KEVIN - ACNC
item GU, YUYUAN - ACNC

Submitted to: Physiology & Behavior
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 6/8/2006
Publication Date: 9/30/2006
Citation: Pivik, R.T., Dykman, R.A., Tennal, K., Gu, Y. 2006. Skipping breakfast: Gender effects on resting heart rate measures in preadolescents. Physiology and Behavior. 89(2):270-280.

Interpretive Summary: Increased heart rate after eating helps deliver nutrients to the brain and body. In this study resting heart rate in male and female children was studied in the morning first while these children maintained overnight fasting, and again after they either ate or skipped breakfast. Boys and girls who skipped breakfast had slower heart rates than those who ate, and eating breakfast countered this heart rate slowing. Although boys showed higher levels of heart rate variability than girls, girls show greater changes in variability in response to either eating or continued fasting than boys.

Technical Abstract: The cardiovascular response in children to morning nutrition has received little attention, and associated gender-related effects are virtually uninvestigated. This study evaluated resting heart-rate (HR) and heart-rate variability (HRV) in preadolescents after overnight fasting and again after eating a standardized breakfast or continuing to fast. HR increased slightly after eating and decreased significantly with continued fasting. These effects were present for both sexes. Relative to children who ate, those who continued fasting showed increases in HRV—particularly for inter-beat-interval and low frequency component (LF: 0.04-0.15Hz) measures. Within-group analyses revealed significant increases across variability measures for fasting children, but a selective LF decrease in those who were fed—an effect most prominent in females. Otherwise, males and females showed similar treatment-related changes in HRV. While within-gender comparisons showed similar results for HR, i.e., faster HR in fed compared with fasting males and females, respectively, fasting females, but not males, showed significantly greater increases in variability relative to their fed counterparts. Together, these findings suggest that extended overnight fasting initiates an increase in parasympathetic activity that appears to attenuate the expected increase in cardiovascular output following a mid-morning meal. Observed gender differences were related to greater parasympathetic activity in males and to the apparent emphasis on the parasympathetic regulation of LF variability. The implications of these findings for health concerns, the nature of responses to physiological and cognitive stressors, and how such differences may influence performance variables —particularly early in development when cardiovascular responses to these stressors may be more sensitive to nutritional factors—are discussed.