We have examined the influence of frequency of urination and quality of life (QOL) in healthy young female adults who are warming their lower back or lower abdominal regious using heat and steam generating (HSG) sheets on the lower back or lower abdominal region. From the survey of frequency of urination in a day (N=50), there are 15 subjects (mean age : 20.0 ± 0.5 years) whose frequency of urination is 7 or more times a day. The subjects outfitted HSG on the lower back (N=7) or lower abdominal (N=8) region for 3 days (9.3± 1.9hrs per day).
　In the result, significant decreasing of frequency of urination was observed. And improvement tendency of social functioning, questionnaire of QOL (MOS36-Item Short-Form Health Survey-v2 ; SF-36v2) was observed. These results suggest that the application of moderate moist heat (38 - 40℃) on the skin stimulates autonomic nerve system and effects decreasing of frequency of urination and improvement of QOL.

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　The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of the application of a hot compress to the posterior region of the neck (PRN) on physiological indices, subjective sleep and feelings of pleasure in inpatients.
　Data were collected using a pretest-posttest design using subjects as their own control. In a convenience sample of six hospitalized women (mean age, 61.8 ± 22.2 years), a 40 ℃ hot towel was applied to the PRN for ten minutes at bedtime for three days.
　Subjective data was obtained using the Oguri-Shirakawa-Azumi sleep inventory (OSA), the pleasure-displeasure and sleepiness scale and non-structured interviews about comfort level. Physiological data included palm surface skin temperature, salivary amylase and tympanic temperature. Intragroup comparisons were performed using paired t-tests.
　The results indicate that palm surface skin temperature significantly increased during application of the compress (p=0.039). However, no significant difference in tympanic temperature was observed. Patients reported feeling comfortable and warm. Feelings of pleasure after the application of the hot compresses included “restful pleasure” and “active pleasure” . During “restful pleasure” , salivary amylase was found to be decreased. In contrast, during “active pleasure” , salivary amylase was increased. The total OSA score and the fatigue recovery score on the OSA were both significantly higher on the last day (day three) of the intervention than at baseline (p=0.011).
　These data suggests that the application of a hot compress to the PRN promotes sleep by elevating peripheral skin temperature inducing feelings of pleasure.

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　This study was designed to investigate whether salivary α-amylase activity (sAA) is useful to evaluate degree of stress in human. Seven healthy female subjects (27.9 ± 8.7years, 21-47years) participated in this study. Unpleasant and pleasant stimulations were applied to the subjects. The unpleasant stimulation was mental arithmetic calculation (addition & subtraction of 2-3 figures) for 10 minutes, and the pleasant stimulation was footbath for 10 minutes. sAA, ECG, skin conductance (SC) were measured to evaluate autonomic nervous function and visual analogue scale (VAS) was used as subjective sensation.
　As a result, sAA, heart rate (HR), SC and VAS showed significant increases during mental arithmetic calculation compared with them before calculation. Furthermore, sAA decreased significantly during footbath. There were significant correlations between sAA and HR, SC or VAS (r_s=0.631-0.798). In conclusion, it was suggested that sAA must be a useful marker to evaluate degree of stress as the other autonomic nervous function.

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　This study examined risk factors of bathing accidents that occurred in a city of Okayama Prefecture in full cooperation with the local fire department. Between 2005 and 2009, 52 deaths and 165 survivors were reported by the fire department due to bathing accidents. This study examined the current status and risk factors of bathing accidents employing incident reports made by the fire department, and the following were clarified : 1) the number of victims who survived was approximately three times higher than that of those who died, 2) a 14-year age difference was observed between death and survival cases (p<0.05), 3) most accidents occurred at home between 18 : 00 and 22 : 00 during winter, and 89% of victims lived with their family,4) among survivors, the accidents tend to occur in all seasons except summer, 5) 63.5% of the victims who died were diagnosed with cardiopulmonary arrest of unknown cause, 6) the most common symptoms observed in survivors were loss of consciousness in the bathtub, followed by discomfort and impaired consciousness, 7) 34.6% of them were diagnosed with cerebrovascular disease, suggesting that high blood pressure may be related, and 8) outside the bathtub, slip-induced falls among the elderly and injuries among children were frequently observed.
　Thus, quite a few bathing accidents are considered to have been occurring as a result of a complex combination of causal factors. Although this study could not examine cases handled by police due to ethical reasons, all incidents need to be analyzed to explore safe bathing methods in Japan.

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[in Japanese]

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