Abstract
The purpose of this study is to compare bath oil bed bath and hot water bed bath to clarify whether bath oil bed bath has a moisturizing effect on the skin. This study was conducted on 27 elderly people aged 65 and over who live in the community. The bath oil bed bath and hot water bed bath were performed on the left and right forearms at random, respectively, and the TEWL and Stratum Corneum hydration were measured immediately before, immediately after wiping , and after 3, 5, 10, and 20 minutes. As a result, there was no interaction between the bed bath method and the passage of time. In addition, there was no difference in the effect on the skin moisturizing function by the difference in the bed bath method. When compared with the value immediately before wiping, TEWL showed a significant increase immediately after wiping and at all measurement time point. Stratum Corneum hydration showed a significant increase immediately after bed bath and a significant decrease after 10 and 20 minutes.
From these results, it is clear that the bath oil bed bath does not show a skin moisturizing effect as compared with the hot water bed bath.
In addition, it became clear that the skin of elderly people was prone to dryness even with a weak stimulus of a bed bath. Therefore, it was suggested that healthcare workers should give careful consideration to the skin when doing a bed bath of the elderly.
