Abstract
BACKGROUND: Heart rate variability (HRV) analysis is a useful method for assessing the heart's ability to adapt to endogenous and exogenous loads. Data from African population on HRV are scarce and even more so in sports populations. This study aimed to compare cardiac autonomic modulation response in Cameroonian athletes and sedentary. Methodology. We conducted a prospective and analytical study in sports teams in the city of Yaoundé, Cameroon. The participants in our study were divided in three groups; people who practiced little or no sporting activity (sedentary as group 1) or who were regularly physically active as part of a sports team (footballers or handballers as second and third groups). They had to be aged 18 or over and have given their informed consent. Heart rate (HR) was continuously recorded at rest for ten minutes and then transferred to a computer equipped with Kubios HRV Standard software for analysis. Means ± mean standard errors were compared using the one-way ANOVA test, followed by Tukey's post-test. The significance threshold was set at 0.05. RESULTS: Of the 60 people selected to participate to our study, 75.0% were sportsmen (40.0% handball players and 35.0% footballers). The resting HR of sedentary people was higher (p < 0.001) than that of footballers and handball players. The SDNN, RMSSD, and pNN50 of sedentary people (16.22 ± 1.04; 9.97 ± 0.46; and 0.16 ± 0.06) were lower than those of footballers (30.13 ± 2.93; 20.61 ± 2.46; and 2.99 ± 0.63, with p < 0.001) and handball players (29.00 ± 1.86; 16.44 ± 1.16; and 2.15 ± 0.38, with p < 0.001 and p < 0.05 respectively). Absolute and relative very-low-frequency (VLF) power, absolute low and high-frequency (LF and HF) power, as well as total power (TP) were lower in sedentary people (3.66 ± 0.08 and 16.21 ± 0.64; 5.04 ± 0.15 and 2.50 ± 0.16 and 246.40 ± 18.04) compared to footballers (5.09 ± 0.24 and 26.87 ± 1.76; 5.85 ± 0.32 and 3.92 ± 0.22 and 836.10 ± 103.70, with p < 0.001, p < 0.01, and p < 0.001) and handball players (4.86 ± 0.16 and 30.82 ± 2.67; 6.03 ± 0.19 and 3.46 ± 0.16 and 927.30 ± 94.12, with p < 0.001, p < 0.05, p < 0.01, and p < 0.001). The LF/HF ratio was 12.1% and 20.1% lower in sedentary people (7.55 ± 0.58) compared with footballers (8.46 ± 0.50) and handball players (9.07 ± 0.60), respectively. CONCLUSION: Sportsmen showed greater parasympathetic and global modulation when compared to sedentary people.