Influences of age and gender on human thermoregulatory responses to cold exposures

Abstract

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 degrees C room temperatures with 40% relative humidity. During the coldest exposure, the rates of increase in metabolic rate (W X m-2 or ml X kg lean body mass-1 X min-1 were similar for all groups. However, older women (n = 7) may have benefited from a larger (P less than 0.05) early metabolic (M) increase (40% within 15 min) than young men (18%) (n = 10), young women (5%) (n = 10), or older men (5%) (n = 10). A similar rapid M response in older women occurred during the 15 degrees C exposure. During all cold exposures, older women maintained constant rectal temperature (Tre) and young women maintained Tre only during the 20 degrees C exposures, whereas Tre of the men declined during all cold exposures (P less than 0.01). Changes in Tre and mean skin temperature (Ts) during cold exposure were largely related to body fat, although age and surface area/mass modified the changes in men. 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 Tre. Despite greater insulation from body fat, the older women maintained a constant Tre at greater metabolic cost than men or younger women.