The nighttime usage of air conditioners among elderlies during summer

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  • KAYABA Momoko
    University of Tsukuba, Graduate School of Comprehensive Human Sciences
  • NAKAZAWA Koichi
    University of Tsukuba, Faculty of Health and Sport Sciences
  • KONDO Masahide
    University of Tsukuba, Faculty of Medicine
  • ONO Masaji
    National Institute of Environmental Studies, Center for Environment Health Sciences
  • MINAKUCHI Emiko
    University of Tsukuba, Graduate School of Comprehensive Human Sciences
  • SUGIMOTO Kazutoshi
    University of Tsukuba, Graduate School of Comprehensive Human Sciences
  • HONDA Yasushi
    University of Tsukuba, Faculty of Health and Sport Sciences

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  • 夏期における高齢者の夜間のエアコン使用に関する研究
  • カキ ニ オケル コウレイシャ ノ ヤカン ノ エアコン シヨウ ニ カンスル ケンキュウ

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This study examined the nighttime usage of air conditioners among elderlies during summer. A web-based survey was conducted from February to March in year 2011. In this paper, we analyzed the data on 751 responses from the elderly aged 65 or older, living in Tokyo's 23 wards. The three important findings were as follows : (1) The proportion of air conditioner installation for “bedrooms only for sleeping (79.3%) ” was lower than that for “bed-cum-sitting rooms (87.9%) ”. Thus, it can be proposed that elderlies do not recognize the necessity for installation of air conditioners in rooms for sleep. (2) In both cases, i. e., living in “bedrooms only for sleeping” and in “bed-cum-sitting rooms”, about 30% of elderlies did not use air conditioners during sleep. In addition, even when they did use air conditioners during sleep, 65.5% (n=399) of elderlies who had air conditioners in their bedrooms used timers and 80.2% (n=320) of them set the timer to be turned off within 3 hours. It was clarified that many elderlies sleep without the usage of air conditioners most of the time. (3) More than half of the respondents replied that the reason why they did not use air conditioners during nighttime is that they often believed that the nighttime usage was bad for their health. In order to prevent elderlies from heat-related sleep disorders or heatstroke which is sometimes fatal, it is necessity to recommend the usage of air conditioners during sleep.

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