Effects of Local Heating on Whole Body Skin Temperature -Centered on the Comparison of Old Women &Female Collegians -

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to design functional clothing based on the physical characteristics of oldwomen. The subjects of this experiment were 5 healthy old women and 5 college women. While thesubjects were exposed to the circumstances of 28± 0.5C and local heating at 7 areas (chest, abdomen,back, loin, hand, thigh and instep), their skin temperature, physiological reaction and psychologicalreaction were determined.The conclusions about the effects of local heating are as follows :1. Skin temperature before heating was in the order of head-neck> trunk> upper limbs> lower limbs(Group A: old subjects) and head-neck> trunk> lower limbs> upper limbs (Group B: youngsubjects).2. The heating pad was attached and detached for 30 minutes each. The sharpest rise and fall wererecorded at 5 minutes with the pad on and off. Both groups had great changes in the body partsnear trunk.3. With the pad on and off, both groups showed no change in body temperature, blood pressure, andpulse rate.4. Concerning the pervasive effects of local heating on whole body skin temperature, loin heatinggreatly increased other body parts in Group A. In Group B, the effects were large in heating chest,abdomen, back, loin, and thigh.5. The loin part of old women has the greatest pervasive effect of local body heating.