Objective
Nowadays half body bathing (H-bath) became popular with increasing interests of health and well-being. H-bath is expected to be beneficial and safe as well as conventional whole body bathing (W-bath). However, there has been no formal report on the safety and effectiveness of H-bath. Therefore, this study tried to evaluate and compare the cardiovascular response during H-bath and W-bath in patients with or without cardiovascular disease. Method: 17 subjects with at least one cardiovascular risk factor and 15 subjects without any cardiovascular risk factor took H-bath while 22 healthy control group without any cardiovascular risk factor took W-bath. Changes of skin and oral temperature as well as hemodynamic responses (systo-lic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, heart rate) were measured. Results: Increasing of systolic blood pressure and heart rate in H-bath was statistically lowered compared to W-bath as time goes by in bathing (p＜0.05). There were no significant difference in patients with and without cardiovascular disease. Conclusion: Heart rate, temperature, systolic blood pressure showed a more gradual increase during H-bath than during W-bath. We propose that H-bath could be a more safe and compliant method of cardiac rehabilitation in patients with cardiovascular disease. (J Korean Acad Rehab Med 2005; 29: 647-653)