| Affiliation: | a Department of Physiological Hygiene, The Institute of Public Health, 4-6-1 Shirokaneda, Minato-ku, Tokyo 108, Japan b National Institute of Bioscience and Human-Technology, M.I.T.I., Tukuba, Japan c Faculty of Home Economics, Jissen Women's University, Hino, Japan d Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology, Tokyo, Japan e Faculty of Engineering, Yokohama National University, Yokohama, Japan |
| Abstract: | 1. 1. The purpose of the study was to investigate the preferred temperature of the elderly after cold and heat exposures. 2. 2. Eight elderly and 9 young females wearing the same type of clothing were exposed to cold (10°C), moderate (25°C) or hot (35°C) environments for 30 min in the exposure room. 3. 3. Then they moved to the self-control room in which the temperature was set at 25°C, and the room temperature increased or decreased continuously by 0.4°C every minute. 4. 4. The subjects were instructed to operate the switch when they felt uncomfortably warm or cool during a 90-min period. 5. 5. In operating the switch, the changing in room temperature shifted to the opposite direction. 6. 6. The ambient temperature was recorded continuously and analyzed as the preferred temperature, which was defined as the midpoint temperature of the crest and trough of temperature records. 7. 7. The preferred temperatures after the cold exposure were significantly higher than those of other exposure conditions in the elderly. 8. 8. On the other hand, in the young, there was no significant difference in the preferred temperature among the exposure conditions. 9. 9. Although the effect of exposure to cold or hot environments decreased in the latter parts of self-control, the elderly still preferred the higher temperature after cold exposure.
Author Keywords: Prefered temperature; elderly; selection of air temperature |
