The study was conducted to investigate the thermoregulation of young children compared to that of adults. A group of 19 children (ages 9 months-4.5 years), with only 3 children aged 3 years or above, and 16 adults first rested in a thermoneutral room (air temperature 25 degrees C relative humidity 50%, air velocity 0.2 m.s(-1)). They were then exposed to a hot room (air temperature 35 degrees C, relative humidity 70%, air velocity 0.3 m.s(-1)) next door for 30 min, and then returned to the thermoneutral room where they stayed for a further 30 min. The rectal temperature (Tre), skin temperatures (Tsk) at seven sites, heart rate (HR), total sweat rate (Msw,t), local sweat rate (Msw,l) and the Na+ concentration of the sweat were measured. There was no significant difference in Tre between the children and their mothers in the rest phase. However, the Tre of the children increased as soon as they entered the hot room and was significantly higher than during the control period, and than that of the mothers during heat exposure. Mean Tsk, forehead, abdomen and instep Tsk were significantly higher in the children during both the thermoneutral and heat exposure. The Msw,t was significantly higher and Na+ concentrations in the sweat on the back and upperarm were significantly lower for the children during the heat exposure. They had a greater body surface area-to-mass ratio than the mothers by 64%, which indicated that they had advantages for thermal regulation. However, the sweating and Tsk responses of the children were not enough to prevent a rise in body temperature. These results would suggest that the young children had the disadvantage of heating up easily due to their smaller body sizes and there may be maturation-related differences in thermoregulation during the heat exposure between young children and mothers.
In this study we investigated the effects of bathing on the quality of sleep in 30 elderly people (ages 65-83 years) and in 30 young people (ages 17-22 years) in their homes. Room temperature did not vary significantly during the nights that data were acquired, ranging from 8 to 12 degrees C. After bathing and at the beginning of sleep, the mean (SE) rectal temperatures of the young and the elderly were 37.8 (0.08) and 37.5 (0.07) degrees C, respectively, and were higher by 0.7 (0.13) and 0.6 (0.07) degrees C, respectively, than when the subjects had not bathed. At the beginning of the sleep after bathing in the young subjects, skin temperature was 32.5 (0.24) and 1.5 (0.34) degrees C higher than when those subjects had not bathed. In the elderly, however, there were no significant differences in skin temperature with and without prior bathing because they used electric blankets during sleep. After bathing, the young people reported "warmth" in their hands and/or legs, while the elderly more often reported "good sleep" or "quickness of falling asleep". During the first 3 h of sleep, body movements were less frequent after bathing for both the young and the elderly subjects. The results suggest that a bath before sleep enhances the quality of sleep, particularly in the elderly.
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of a floor heating and air conditioning system on thermal responses of the elderly. Eight elderly men and eight university students sat for 90 minutes in a chair under the following 3 conditions: air conditioning system (A), floor heating system (F) and no heating system (C). The air temperature of sitting head height for condition A was 25 degrees C, and the maximum difference in vertical air temperature was 4 degrees C. The air and floor temperature for condition F were 21 and 29 degrees C, respectively. The air temperature for condition C was 15 degrees C. There were no significant differences in rectal temperature and mean skin temperature between condition A and F. Systolic blood pressure of the elderly men in condition C significantly increased compared to those in condition A and F. No significant differences in systolic blood pressure between condition A and F were found. The percentage of subjects who felt comfortable under condition F was higher than that of those under condition A in both age groups, though the differences between condition F and A was not significant. Relationships between thermal comfort and peripheral (e.g., instep, calf, hand) skin temperature, and the relationship between thermal comfort and leg thermal sensation were significant for both age groups. However, the back and chest skin temperature and back thermal sensation for the elderly, in contrast to that for the young, was not significantly related to thermal comfort. These findings suggested that thermal responses and physiological strain using the floor heating system did not significantly differ from that using the air conditioning system, regardless of the subject age and despite the fact that the air temperature with the floor heating system was lower. An increase in BP for elderly was observed under the condition in which the air temperature was 15 degrees C, and it was suggested that it was necessary for the elderly people to heat the room somehow in winter. Moreover, it is particularly important for elderly people to avoid a decrease in peripheral skin temperature, and maintain awareness of the warmth of peripheral areas, such as the leg, in order to ensure thermal comfort.
Eight Japanese men and women participated in this study. They were randomly exposed to two environments: hot-dry; HD (Ta = 40 degrees C, rh 30%, wet bulb globe temperature (WBGT) = 32 degrees C) and hot-wet; HW (Ta = 31 degrees C, rh = 80%, WBGT = 32 degrees C) for 110 min. During the exposure, they rested on a bicycle ergometer for 20 min during rest and 30 min during recovery, then they pedaled it with an intensity of 40% VO2 max for 60 min. Tre, Tsk, and HR were recorded every minute. Total sweat loss and dripping were measured by independent bed balances which was connected to a computer processing with an accuracy of 1 g throughout the experiment. Sweat sodium concentration at forearm and back sites were collected by sweat capsule technique. These results showed that delta Tre, Tsk, evaporated sweat, dripping sweat, body heat storage of both sexes in HD were significantly higher than these in HW during exercise. HR of men in HD at the end of recovery was slightly higher than that of women. Whereas the sweat sodium concentration at forearm and back sites in both sexes remained unchanged either in HD or HW environment, it was found that HD was more stressful than HW environment under equivalent WBGT.
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