Effects of basin baths, tub baths, and showers on cardiovascular responses in 51 health men and women.

Abstract

Heart rate and blood pressure during rest and bathing are generally lower in healthy individuals than in hospitalized patients. However, medications can exaggerate or attenuate patients' responses. Heart rate and blood pressure are highest during showering and lowest during basin baths in both patients and healthy subjects, but the differences among the three types of bathing are not clinically dramatic. In addition, the vigor of the activity can be easily controlled; hospitalized patients naturally conserve effort and move more slowly and deliberately than healthy individuals. A tachycardic response to bathing seems to be common in both healthy subjects and hospitalized patients. Careful control of water temperature and heart rate monitoring during bathing appear to be indicated when hospitalized cardiac patients bathe. Comparison of responses to sitting and standing showering would be worthwhile. The findings of this study help delineate the typical cardiovascular responses of healthy adults to three methods of bathing. The findings also emphasize gender differences and the importance of studying both men and women. Only by determining normal responses in men and women can abnormal responses be recognized. More study on cardiovascular responses to bathing and other common activities in both healthy and sick persons is clearly needed to better describe, explain, predict, and control responses to activity and to build a scientific foundation for activity prescription and restriction.