Sexual Dimorphism of Heart Rate Variability in Adolescence: A Case-Control Study on Depression, Anxiety, Stress Levels, Body Composition, and Heart Rate Variability in Adolescents with Impaired Fasting Glucose

Charikleia Stefanaki, Athanasios Michos, George Latsios, Dimitrios Tousoulis, Melpomeni Peppa, Paraskevi Zosi, Dario Boschiero and Flora Bacopoulou
Additional contact information
Charikleia Stefanaki: Center for Adolescent Medicine and UNESCO Chair on Adolescent Health Care, First Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Aghia Sophia Children’s Hospital, 115 27 Athens, Greece
Athanasios Michos: Center for Adolescent Medicine and UNESCO Chair on Adolescent Health Care, First Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Aghia Sophia Children’s Hospital, 115 27 Athens, Greece
George Latsios: First Cardiology Department, School of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Hippokration Hospital, 115 28 Athens, Greece
Dimitrios Tousoulis: First Cardiology Department, School of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Hippokration Hospital, 115 28 Athens, Greece
Melpomeni Peppa: Endocrine Unit, Second Department of Internal Medicine Propaedeutic, Research Institute and Diabetes Center, Attikon University Hospital, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 115 28 Athens, Greece
Paraskevi Zosi: Department of Pediatrics, General Hospital of Nikaia “Agios Panteleimon”, 184 54 Piraeus, Greece
Dario Boschiero: BIOTEKNA Biomedical Technologies, 30020 Venice, Italy
Flora Bacopoulou: Center for Adolescent Medicine and UNESCO Chair on Adolescent Health Care, First Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Aghia Sophia Children’s Hospital, 115 27 Athens, Greece

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 8, 1-15

Abstract: Prediabetes in the form of impaired fasting glucose, impaired glucose tolerance, or both is considered as a preliminary stage for the onset of diabetes and diabetic complications. Hormonal fluctuations in adolescence are accompanied by body composition modifications, which are associated with insulin resistance and subclinical inflammation. Bioimpedance (BIA) accurately evaluates body composition, and heart rate variability (HRV) assesses cardiac autonomic function, which are frequently afflicted by insulin resistance. We aimed at evaluating the effect of glycemic status on mental stress, anxiety, and depression status in adolescents with impaired fasting glucose, body composition, and HRV parameters. This is a case-control study to evaluate the effect of the hyperglycemia on depression, anxiety, and stress levels (DASS21 questionnaire), body composition (BIA-ACC—BIOTEKNA©), and HRV (PPG Stress Flow—BIOTEKNA©), between euglycemic adolescents (euglycemic group) and adolescents with impaired fasting glucose (prediabetic group), aged 12–20 years. No differences were found between the prediabetic ( n = 13) and the euglycemic ( n = 16) groups in the outcome measures, possibly due to the number of participants. Interestingly, females, irrespective of their glycemic status, exhibited altered sympathovagal function as revealed by impaired HRV. In the euglycemic group, HRV parameters were significantly correlated and in line with the DASS21 scores, but in the prediabetic group, similarities to those of adults were observed. Impaired fasting glucose had no impact on mental health, body composition, or HRV parameters in adolescents. HRV parameters were impaired in females, irrespective of their glycemic status. This finding implies that females seem to be more prone to stress disorders, even from a young age. Future studies are needed to confirm these findings.

Keywords: adolescence; impaired fasting glucose; body composition; heart rate variability; BIA; DASS21 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/8/2688/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/8/2688/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:8:p:2688-:d:345341

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().