Clothing selection behavior of the aged women for thermal comfort

Abstract

Wearing behavior and thermoregulatory responses of five young women (YG; 20 ± 1 yr) and five aged women (AG; 65 + 3 yr) to indoor cold in summer were investigated in this study. The subjects were exposed to 21.0 ± 0.5°C and 55 ± 5%RH while seated during a 90-minute experiment. The subjects were allowed to select and wear for thermal comfort clothing whenever they needed additional clothing during the experiment. Rectal temperature (Tre) and temperatures of 7 sites (head, chest, forearm, hand, thigh, leg, foot) of the skin of the subjects were measured every 10 minutes. Mean skin temperature (Tsk) of the subject was obtained every 10 minutes. First selection time of additional clothing was monitored and weight of selected total clothing was calculated. The results for this study were as follows: Tre and Tsk gradually decreased in YG and AG, however Tre decreased less than Tsk which decreased greater in AG than YG (p<0.01). AG's first selection of additional clothing and thermal sensation response were slower than YG's. Furthermore, total clothing weight was less in AG than YG. It was concluded that clothing selection behavior would modify the intrinsic thermoregulatory responses of the aged women to the cold stress in the summer.