The Effect of Age and Body Weight on the Electrocardiogram of Healthy Men

Abstract

It is believed that proper evaluation of the electrocardiogram of a patient should mean comparison with the electrocardiographic features in healthy individuals who are in other respects comparable. Among the "other respects," age and body weight are important constitutional variables. The present information about the effect of these factors on the electrocardiogram is not adequate and, therefore, the differentiation between normal and abnormal is less precise than need be. In this paper, information is provided on the effect of age and body weight on the electrocardiogram, on the basis of a statistical analysis of various electrocardiographic items in numerically adequate samples of normal male population. It is shown that the effect of both age and weight is statistically highly significant, so that their consideration in electrocardiographic normal standards is suggested.