A Study on Behavior Pattern and Physiological Changes during Bathing and Showering

목욕 및 샤워시 행동패턴 및 생리적 변화에 대한 연구

Analysis of behavior pattern and thermal response during bathing and showering provides important fundamental data when developing an automatic bathing/showering system. The behavior pattern and physiological changes during bathing/showering were measured und analyzed for the aged male group. We recorded the volunteers showering at front, back, left and right view using four CCTV cameras in order to study the behavior pattern during showering. The photographic data were analyzed by counting the frequencies of body contact and identifying zones where hands could reach. In order to study the thermal response, we measured the blood pressure (B.P), heart rate (H.R), body temperature (B.T.), breathing rate (B.R) for the different water temperatures and the locations of immersion for the young and old age groups. The results showed that the frequencies of body contacts were varied for different body sections. Also there were some body sections where hands could not be reached because of reduced pliability and muscular strength of the aged group. But we observed rather uniform body contact frequencies when a towel was used. In partial immersion bath experiments, we observed the changes of B.P. H.R and B.T in the case of young and old age groups, and the changes were more significant in the young age group.