Skin Wetting Attenuates the Thermal Strain of Older Adults Exposed to Very Hot and Dry Heat with Accompanying Activities of Daily Living
Authors: McKenna Zachary J. , Atkins Whitley C. , Jarrard Caitlin P. , Foster Josh , Crandall Craig G. 
Published: May 2024

Heat waves cause more deaths and hospitalizations in the elderly relative to any other age group. Indoor cooling with an air conditioner is an effective strategy to prevent the deleterious health effects of heat. However, air conditioning may not be available to some due to limited access, rising energy costs, power outages, and/or industry/government-imposed rolling blackouts. Thus, there is a clear need to identify non-air conditioning dependent cooling strategies to attenuate excessive elevations in body temperature and associated physiological strain in the elderly during heat wave conditions. Purpose: We tested the hypothesis that supplemental skin wetting via water spray attenuates elevations in core temperature and the accompanying physiological strain in older adults exposed to very hot and dry heat with accompanying activities of daily living. Methods: In a randomized order, 10 older adults (4 Females/6 Males; 74 ± 5 years) were exposed to 3-hours of ambient heating, replicating peak environmental conditions during the 2018 Los Angeles heat wave (47 ºC, 15% relative humidity), with (water spray) or without (control) skin-wetting via tap temperature water (~40 g applied every 10-minutes). To simulate heat generation associated with activities of daily living, participants performed six 5-minute periods of light exercise (~3 METS; metabolic heat production: 2.93 ± 0.42 W/kg in control and 2.95 ± 0.44 W/kg in water spray) dispersed throughout the heat exposure. To maintain euhydration, participants consumed 3 mL/kg/hr of tap-temperature water. We assessed core and skin temperatures, heart rate, whole-body sweat rate, and forearm blood flow (as a surrogate of changes in skin blood flow). We compared data between control and water spray trials using one-tailed paired t-tests. Results: When compared to control, water spray reduced the increase in core temperature by 0.33 ± 0.43 °C (p=0.020), ending skin temperature by 1.83 ± 0.73 °C (p<0.001), and ending heart rate by 6 ± 9 bpm (p=0.033). Whole-body sweat rate was 2.12 ± 1.08 g/min lower with water spray compared to control (p<0.001). However, the increase in forearm blood flow was not different between control (154 ± 74 mL/min) and water spray (149 ± 93 mL/min) trials (p=0.400). Conclusion: These preliminary data show that supplemental skin-wetting via water spray attenuates the thermal (core and skin temperature) and associated physiological strain (heart rate and fluid-loss) of older adults exposed to extreme heat with accompanying activities of daily living. The downstream impact of this reduced thermal strain on cardiac and renal stress should be examined, as these are two of the main causes of heat-related morbidity and mortality.

Supported by NIH R01AG069005 (CGC) and AHA 23POST1023065 (ZJM).

This is the full abstract presented at the American Physiology Summit 2024 meeting and is only available in HTML format. There are no additional versions or additional content available for this abstract. Physiology was not involved in the peer review process.