1. Introduction
cardiovascular and/or metabolic diseases, death, hypertensive, cardiovascular or metabolic disease
DISEASES, HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE, CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE, HBP
Background: High blood pressure is an important public health problem due to its high prevalence, the difficulty to control it, and its high contribution to morbidity. A series of changes may be linked to the aging process, compromising cardiac conduction, and reducing cardiovascular baroreceptor function. Advancing age promotes a decline in heart rate variability and this decrease can increase the probability of cardiovascular disease. The aim of this study was to analyze the autonomic modulation of heart rate in hypertensive elderly individuals during and after a session of aerobic exercise, and to compare it with elderly individuals without cardiovascular or metabolic disease. Our study was a non-randomized controlled study with hypertensive elderly (HBP group) and elderly without cardiovascular and/or metabolic diseases (control group). Data on blood pressure and heart rate variability (HRV) were collected before, during, and after 30 min of aerobic physical exercise on a treadmill. There was a reduction in HF (msCardiovascular diseases are still the biggest cause of death in the world. High blood pressure (HBP), one of the main causes, has been the focus of global health policies to improve populations’ survival. HBP is an important public health problem due to its high prevalence, difficulty in controlling it, and its high cause of morbidity [With advancing age, the increase in blood pressure has been related to damage to the mechanisms of the autonomic nervous system and the practice of aerobic physical exercise represents an adequate intervention to combat such changes [Aerobic training (AT) consists of a wide range of exercises practiced around the world by the elderly, and it has been proposed as a tool to improve the baroreceptor reflex and vagal modulation, resulting in an improvement in heart rate variability (HRV) after physical activity [The reactivation of parasympathetic activity can be measured by heart rate recovery (HRR), which is the reduction in heart rate (HR) after physical activity. The HRR can be an important predictor of mortality risk due to its importance in reducing sympathetic activity triggered by exercise [A series of changes can be linked to the aging process, including compromised cardiac conduction and reduced cardiovascular baroreceptor function [HBP has been linked with loss of autonomic modulation of HR, characterized by sympathetic dominance and often by a reduction in the vagal component, which leads to a decrease in HR and blood pressure variability [Our study aimed to analyze the autonomic modulation of heart rate in hypertensive elderly individuals during and after an aerobic exercise session, and to compare it with elderly individuals without cardiovascular or metabolic disease.