Abstract
Only a few attempts have been made so far at researching heart rate changes in persons with profound disabilities. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the relationship between heart rate changes and aging. The first study investigated 216 persons (CA 3-49 years) with profound disabilities, using a cross-sectional method. The patients were divided into two groups according to their locomotive abilities. One group included 133 bedridden patients (mean CA, 20 years 8 months); the other, 83 non-bedridden patients (mean CA, 31 years 10 months). Average heart rate was compared between the two groups. The scond study utilized a longitudinal method with 40 patients with profound disabilities (CA 1-40 years). They were divided into two groups as in the first study. An annual heart rate measure was compared in two groups. In both studies, heart rates measured at midnight by ward nurses were analyzed by statistical methods. The results were as follows: Even in persons with profound disabilities, heart rate showed decreasing patterns depending on age, similar to the pattern reported for persons without disabilities (Fig. 1). Within the two groups, the bedridden patients showed a significantly lower heart rate than the non-bedridden patients (Fig. 2). The differences between these decreasing heart-rate patterns depended on the patients' locomotive abilities. These findings were shown not only through the cross-sectional method, but also with the longitudial method. This study found that the decreasing patterns of heart rate in persons with profound disabilities were influenced by two factors. First, the changes depended on the degree of locomotive ability, and second, they depended on the age of the patients (Table 1).
