Birth weight and heart rate autonomic recovery following exercise in healthy term-born adults

The impact of birth weight (BW) on adult health has been studied, related to the autonomic nervous system, and implicated in cardiovascular risk. We investigated cardiorespiratory and heart rate (HR) autonomic recovery after moderate effort in healthy term-born adults with different BWs. We studied 28 healthy physically active women aged between 18 to 30 years split equally into two groups according to BW: G1 (n = 14), BW between 2500 g and 3200 g and G2 (n = 14), BW > 3200 g. The groups remained seated at rest for 15 min, followed by aerobic exercise on a treadmill (five minutes at 50–55% of maximum HR and 25 min 60–65% of maximum HR) and then remained seated for 60 min during recovery from the exercise. Cardiorespiratory parameters and HR variability (HRV) [RMSSD, HF (ms(2))] were assessed before and during recovery from exercise. In G1, HR was increased from 0 to 20 min after exercise whilst in G2 HR was higher from 0 to 7 min following exercise. In G1, short-term HRV was increased from 5 to 10 min after exercise but in G2 it recovered prior to 5 min following effort. In conclusion, healthy term-born women with low normal BW present slower HR autonomic recovery after exercise.