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Vol.36 No.1 contents | Japanese/English |
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Full Text of PDF (494K) Article in Japanese |
Research about How to Improve Heat Stress in Health Care Workers with Cover-up Type Protective Clothing-Effects of Local Torso Cooling on Human Body-
Setuko WATABE1), Megumi OHGAMA2) and Midori TSUKAKOSI1)
1)Nursing Course, School of Medicine, Yokohama City University, 2)Yokosuka City Hospital Infection Control Office
One of the problems of cover-up type protective clothing (protective clothes) is to make heat stress on health care workers. Thus, the purpose of this research is to survey the effects of local torso cooling with cooling devices on the human body.
The design of this study is an "intervention design." So when nurses simulate 120 minutes' nursing procedures, 16 link nurses were divided randomly into two groups; one using cooling devices (intervention group) and the other using conventional clothes (control group). The indicators of heat stress (thermal sensation, comfort index, temperature in-and-out of the clothes, tympanic temperature, forehead temperature, and fogging of goggles) were measured every 30 minutes.
The results showed that torso cooling is more effective in thermal sensation immediately after wearing and in comfort index from after wearing 30 to 120 minutes, i.e., every 30 minutes, (p<0.05 p<0.001, respectively) respectively. Between tympanic temperature and forehead temperature, there was no significant difference. In the intervention group, the grade of fogging of goggles was relatively weak as compared with the control group.
Results indicated that local torso cooling increased the "comfort index" by controlling skin surface temperature. Furthermore, the fact that the temperatures in both groups were not significantly different indicated that thermoregulation mechanisms made possible to control the temperature by vasodilation associated with sweating. Thus, the temperature of the intervention group was relatively low. The results for fogging of goggles had been strengthened in the control group might be explained also by the effect of gradual rise of temperature.
This study indicated that "local torso cooling" effectively improved heat stress.
Key words：cover-up type protective clothing, local torso cooling on human body, heat stress
e-mail: wsetuko＠med.yokohama-cu.ac.jp
Received: February 21, 2020
Accepted: October 2, 2020
36 (1)：35─43,2021
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