Determination and application of typical local skin temperature of elderly people in summer

To explore the skin temperature characteristics of elderly people in summer and quickly judge the heat stress status of elderly people, twenty-four elderly people in an elderly apartment in Baoding are selected as the subjects for field testing, and 1 900 groups of environment-physiological indicator data are measured. The distribution characteristics of the eleven local skin temperatures of elderly people under different environmental temperatures in summer are analysed. Then a typical local skin temperature is selected based on the environmental sensitivities of local skin temperatures and the correlations between local skin temperatures. Finally, the specific application of the typical local skin temperature in the field measurement is proposed. The results show that the hand back temperature has the highest environmental sensitivity and is most significantly associated with other local skin temperatures, thus, it is selected as the typical local skin temperature. The mean skin temperature shows a quadratic polynomial relationship with the hand back temperature. The heat stress grading intervals corresponding to the hand back temperature are none or mild [35.6 ℃, 35.8 ℃], moderate (35.8 ℃, 36.8 ℃], and severe (36.8 ℃, 39.1 ℃]. By measuring the hand back temperature, it is possible to quickly estimate the mean skin temperature in both uniform and steady-state environments and evaluate the heat stress state of elderly people. This study can provide a reference for quickly judging the risk of heat stress in elderly people in the actual field.