Electric fans won't help older people keep cool once the temperature rises too much

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2024-10-18 02:00

International

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Electric fans can't help lower the body temperature of an older person stuck inside a poorly cooled building during a heatwave, according to international researchers. With older people of particular concern in heatwaves as they have less of an ability to sweat, the researchers tested the capacity of an electric fan to improve the conditions for 18 people aged 65 to 85 sitting in a room for eight hours with the temperature at 36 °C. The researchers say with no fan or with a fan set at two different speeds, the participants' average core temperature was the same at 38.3°C, and no meaningful evidence the fan made the conditions less physically tough for them. The researchers say this shows electric fans are not an effective strategy to mitigate the risks of prolonged heat.

Media release

From: JAMA

About The Study: Electric fan use did not lower peak core temperature in older adults exposed to extreme indoor heat. Reductions in end-exposure core temperature and heart rate were observed, but they were small and of questionable clinical importance. Neither exceeded previous suggestions for clinical significance. Consistent with recent modeling, these data do not support fans as an efficacious standalone cooling intervention for older adults in hot indoor environments (>33-35 °C).

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Research JAMA, Web page The URL will go live after the embargo ends

Journal/
conference: JAMA

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: University of Ottawa, Canada

Funder: This project was supported by funding from the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (contract PJT–180242) and Health Canada (contract 4500387992).

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