Effect on autonomic nervous activity of applying hot towels for 10 s to the back during bed baths.
J Physiol Anthropol
; 39(1): 35, 2020 Nov 19.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-33213514
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
Bed baths are a daily nursing activity to maintain patients' hygiene. Those may provide not only comfort but also relaxation. Notably, applying a hot towel to the skin for 10 s (AHT10s) during bed baths helped to reduce the risk of skin tears and provided comfort and warmth in previous studies. However, it is still unclear whether autonomic nervous system is affected by bed baths. Thus, this study investigated the effect on the autonomic nervous activity of applying hot towels for 10 s to the back during bed baths.METHODS:
This crossover study had 50 participants (25 men and women each; average age 22.2 ± 1.6 years; average body mass index 21.4 ± 2.2 kg/m2) who took bed baths with and without (control condition CON) AHT10s on their back. Skin temperature, heart rate variability (HRV), and blood pressure (BP) were measured. Subjective evaluations and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory in Japanese were also performed.RESULTS:
A significant interaction of time and bed bath type on skin surface temperature was observed (p < .001). Regarding the means of skin surface temperature at each measurement time point, those for AHT10s were significantly higher than those for CON. Although the total state-anxiety score significantly decreased in both the bed bath types after intervention, the mean values of comfort and warmth were higher for bed baths with AHT10s than for CON (p < .05) during bed baths; AHT10s was significantly higher in warmth than CON after 15 min (p = .032). The interaction and main effects of time on HRV and BP and that of bed bath type were not significant.CONCLUSION:
Bed baths that involved AHT10s caused participants to maintain a higher skin temperature and warmer feeling than under the wiping-only condition; they also provided comfort during the interventions. However, the bed baths with AHT10s did not allow participants to reach a relaxed state; moreover, there was no change in autonomic nerve activity. This may be due to participants' increased anxiety from skin exposure and the intervention being limited to one part of the body.Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Skin Temperature
/
Autonomic Nervous System
/
Baths
/
Patient Comfort
Type of study:
Clinical_trials
Limits:
Adult
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
Language:
En
Journal:
J Physiol Anthropol
Journal subject:
ANTROPOLOGIA
Year:
2020
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Japón