Evidence mapPaperPMID 42317136Full record

ArticleBrain and behavior2026

Autonomic Modulation and Body Composition in Educators: Physiological Associations in the Workplace Context.

Estela Álvarez-Gallardo, Andrea Calderón García, Pilar González-Sanz, Pedro Belinchón-deMiguel, Vicente Javier Clemente-Suárez

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Article in Brain and behavior, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

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1 · What the graph read from it

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2 · The registry

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3 · Its place in the literature

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4 · The record

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5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors.

Estela Álvarez-GallardoDepartment of Nursing, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Sports, Universidad Europea de Madrid, Villaviciosa de Odón, Spain.
Andrea Calderón GarcíaDepartment of Pharmacy and Nutrition, Faculty of Biomedical Sciences, Universidad Europea de Madrid, Villaviciosa de Odón, Spain.
Pilar González-SanzDepartment of Nursing, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Sports, Universidad Europea de Madrid, Villaviciosa de Odón, Spain.
Pedro Belinchón-deMiguelDepartment of Nursing, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Sports, Universidad Europea de Madrid, Villaviciosa de Odón, Spain.
Vicente Javier Clemente-SuárezResearch Group in Culture, Education and Society, University of the Coast, Barranquilla, Colombia.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

purposeThis study examined the relationship between body composition and cardiac autonomic nervous system activity in educators. The objective was to explore the associations between body fat mass (BFM) and fat-free mass (FFM) with different heart rate variability (HRV) indices in a sample of educators and to assess whether FFM moderates the relationship between BFM and autonomic function.

methodA descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted with 253 educators from compulsory and higher education institutions during the 2022-2023 academic year. Autonomic regulation was assessed via HRV, and body composition was measured using bioelectrical impedance analysis.

findingsIndividuals with higher fat mass exhibited less favorable autonomic modulation, evidenced by lower values of the root mean square of successive differences (RMSSD), a time-domain index that reflects parasympathetic activity and the recovery capacity of the autonomic nervous system. Those with greater fat mass also showed a higher mean heart rate, whereas participants with higher FFM displayed more efficient cardiac activity, with lower mean, minimum, and maximum heart rates. In addition, FFM partially moderated the relationship between BFM and mean heart rate. By contrast, a higher total body water content was associated with a shift toward sympathetic dominance, reflected in higher low-frequency (LF) components-which represent a mixture of sympathetic and parasympathetic activity-and lower high-frequency (HF) components, which predominantly reflect parasympathetic activity. Conversely, individuals with higher FFM presented lower mean, minimum, and maximum heart rates, suggesting more efficient autonomic cardiac regulation.

conclusionOverall, the findings demonstrate that body composition-particularly FFM and BFM-significantly influences HRV and autonomic nervous system modulation in educators, underscoring the importance of considering body composition in the assessment of autonomic function and in the design of personalized health strategies.

Indexed as

Autonomic Nervous SystemBody CompositionHeart RateAcademiaAdultCross-Sectional StudiesFemaleHumansMaleadipose tissueautonomic modulationbody compositioneducatorsheart rate variabilityskeletal muscle

Identifiers

PMID42317136
PMCPMC13280567

What Socratic holds

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.