<資料・研究ノート>熱帯住民の高温環境への適応に関する試論 : タイ住民のケース・スタディ

Abstract

The aim of this research was to study the effects of tropical climate on physical characteristics of men and their physiological responses in relation to temperature control. The research was carried out on 30 male Thai, aged 21 years old, and 8 male Japanese residents in Thailand, aged 25-45 years old, in September of 1975. Oral temperature and skin temperatures for each subject in recumbent position were estimated in a room at temperature of 27-28℃ in early morning and anthropometrical measurements were made. The mean value of oral temperature for Thai (36.4℃) was slightly lower than that for Japanese 36.5℃ and the mean value of mean skin temperature for the Thai (34.0℃) was higher than that for Japanese (33.8℃). These results suggested that the Thai has higher conductive-convective heat transfer coefficient from core to skin than Japanese. The Thai has significantly lighter body weight (52.8kg) and thinner mean skinfolds (8.4mm) than Japanese (64.5kg and 10.9mm, respectively). The mean values of girths of chest, upper arm and thigh for Thai were 85.0cm, 26.9cm and 47.5cm respectively and were significantly shorter than those for Japanese (91.2cm, 28.3cm and 50.7cm, respectively). The anthropometrical characteristics of thai people may be explained as due to a result of adaptation to hot environment. As the number of subjects measured were not enough to draw an exact conclusion, further studies with more subjects of two kinds of peoples should be made in the future.