Abstract
The purpose of this study was to design functional clothing based on the physical characteristics of old women. The subjects of this experiment were 5 healthy old women and 5 college women. While the subjects were exposed to the circumstances of $28{\pm}0.5^{\circ}C$ and local heating at 7 areas (chest, abdomen, back, loin, hand, thigh and instep), their skin temperature, physiological reaction and psychological reaction were determined. The conclusions about the effects of local heating are as follows : 1. Skin temperature before heating was in the order of head-neck> trunk> upper limbs> lower limbs (Group A: old subjects) and head-neck> trunk> lower limbs> upper limbs (Group B: young subjects). 2. The heating pad was attached and detached for 30 minutes each. The sharpest rise and fall were recorded at 5 minutes with the pad on and off. Both groups had great changes in the body parts near trunk. 3. With the pad on and off, both groups showed no change in body temperature, blood pressure, and pulse rate. 4. Concerning the pervasive effects of local heating on whole body skin temperature, loin heating greatly increased other body parts in Group A. In Group B, the effects were large in heating chest, abdomen, back, loin, and thigh. 5. The loin part of old women has the greatest pervasive effect of local body heating.