Influences of Age and Gender on Human Thermoregulatory Responses to Cold Exposures

摘要

To delineate age- and gender-related differences in physiological responses to cold exposure, men and women between the ages of 20 and 29 yr and 51 and 72 yr, wearing minimal clothing, were exposed at rest for 2 h to 28, 20, 15, and 10 C room temperatures with 40% relative humidity. The data suggest that older men are more susceptible to cold ambients than younger people, since they did not prevent a further decline in their initially relatively low rectal temperature. Despite greater insulation fom body fat, the older women maintained a constant rectal temperature at greater metabolic cost than men or younger women.