2021 Volume 28 Issue 2 Pages 53-64
Japanese people like to take a bath and take a bath almost every day. Japanese bathing in winter is unique, soaking in hot water up to their shoulders and taking a long bath. However, it is estimated that this Japanese-style bathing causes accidental deaths of elderly people while taking a bath in winter, and the number reaches 18,000 a year. The mortality rate of drowning was correlated with undressing room temperature. It has been clarified that the more people who complain that the bathroom is cold in winter, the higher the temperature of the hot water, the longer they take a bath, and the higher the rate of poor physical condition in the bathroom. It is known that elderly people are less likely to feel the cold and heat than young people, and their blood pressure rises significantly with the cold. The average room temperature for undressing at night in detached houses outside Hokkaido is less than 15 ° C, increasing the risk of death from bathing in the elderly in winter. For safe and comfortable winter bathing, the undressing room temperature needs to be 20 ℃or higher, and 25 ℃would be recommended for the elderly.
