Heart rate variability in obese children

Introduction: in recent years, several studies have performed the behavior of ANS on obesity by the heart rate variability (HRV). The literature describes that obese adults have dysfunctions on ANS, nevertheless there is a few information with childhood obesity and the findings are still inconclusive. Objective: gathering studies that approach the analysis of the ANS by HRV in obese children to understand better the influence of obesity on this system and in this population and provide an update of the findings published in the last eleven years. Methods: the search of articles was conducted on Pubmed, Ibesc, Medline, Scielo, Cochrane and Lilacs databases using the keywords: heart rate, autonomic nervous system, obesity, child and sympathetic nervous system of health subject headings (MeSH). Results: the electronic search resulted in 11 articles and, in general, showed a decrease in activity of the parasympathetic branch of obese children and inconclusive results by the sympathetic branch. Moreover, interventions as diet and physical activity "could increase the ANS function in these children. Conclusion: obese children have changes on ANS function and this presents the necessity of precocious attention aims at avoiding future complications.