The number of sudden deaths occurring during bathing in Japan has recently exceeded 10, 000 people and the 80% of these have occurred to the elderly. Although some guidelines for safe bathing are available, bathing-related accidents have still not declined. The purpose of this study is to use a questionnaire to survey the daily bathing habits of middle-aged and elderly people.
Method: For the subjects of this study, 77 middle-aged and elderly persons attending a healthful exercise class were given a questionnaire survey, and of these 10 persons were recruited at random and their daily bathing habits at home were studied. Results: The questionnaire survey revealed that almost all of the middle-aged and elderly people had unsafe bathing habits. In addition, a comparison of the questionnaire and the home habits study showed much discrepancy between the perceived and measured body and room temperatures before, during, and after bathing. Conclusion: Almost all middle-aged or elderly people had unsafe bathing habits.

  Purpose: Age-associated changes in arterial structure and function increase risk of cardiovascular disease. Previous studies have found that the body temperature response might influence acute changes in arterial stiffness after exercise. However, the relationship between increased body temperature during warm bathing and arterial stiffness has not been clarified. Therefore, the present study aimed to determine the effects of increases in body temperature by bathing in warm water on arterial stiffness in elderly subjects.  Methods: Healthy elderly 8 subjects (8 males, mean age ± standard error: 61.1 ± 1.1 years) bathed in water at 35°C, 38°C, and 40°C for 15 min. Carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (aortic PWV) and femoral-ankle PWV (leg PWV), blood pressure, heart rate, and rectal temperature were measured at baseline and at 30 and 60 min after bathing, in a quiet and air-conditioned room at the same time in the morning.  Results: Rectal temperature was significantly increased at 30 and 60 min after bathing at 38°C and 40°C, whereas leg PWV significantly decreased. Heart rate significantly increased at 30 and 60 min after bathing at 40°C. Blood pressure did not change after bathing at any temperature.  Conclusion: The present study showed that leg PWV significantly decreased in elderly subjects after bathing at 40°C, but not at 35°C and 38°C. However the underlying mechanism of the decrease remains unknown and these effects might depend on increased body temperature. Thus, it is suggested that warm bathing might affect the decrease in leg arterial stiffness.

Objective: To assess LV function during and after warm-water immersion in elderly subjects. Concomitantly with aging, left ventricular (LV) diastolic function decreases. According to results of previous studies, warm-water immersion improves cardiac function in patients with cardiovascular disease. However, its effect in normal elderly is still unclear. Material and Methods: To investigate the effect of acute warm-water immersion on LV function with Doppler echocardiography in elderly subjects, subjects underwent immersion in 40°C water to nipple level for 15 min. Results: The stroke volume (SV), cardiac output (CO), and LV ejection fraction (LVEF) increased significantly during and after warm-water immersion. The ratio of early diastolic mitral inflow (E) and early diastolic mitral annular tissue velocity (E’), an index LV of filling pressure, did not increase during or after immersion. Some LV diastolic function indexes such as E increased during immersion, but after immersion indexes of diastolic function were not different relative to before immersion. Conclusion: These results suggest that LV diastolic function did not correspond to the increased systolic function in elderly subjects, so it might suggest that the LV contraction-relaxation coupling may be interrupted in elderly.