Children are considered poor subjective judges of the cold, and with a larger surface area to body mass ratio (SA:MR), less subcutaneous fat, and less efficient thermoregulation, they are thought to be more susceptible to cold-related illness and hypothermia.
It has long been recognised that children differ from adults in many physical, physiological and psychological ways. However, the current understanding of how children’s bodies respond and adapt to immersion and swimming in cold water is largely theoretical and based on adult studies. Considering that drowning represents the third leading cause of accidental death worldwide, with over half occurring in children aged 0-14 years (WHO), the vast number of non accidental injuries caused by water immersion and the growing interest in competitive open water swimming amongst children, this seems inadequate.
With a cohort of children volunteering to train for a cross-Channel swim, BEST provides the unique opportunity for a research project that aims to further our understanding of children’s physiological response to immersion in cold water, their subjective interpretation of the cold, and to determine whether there is any evidence of conditioning following repeated exposure to this environment.
This study is being conducted at Portsmouth University 2009-10, where each volunteer is asked to sit in water of 15C for 5 mins and then swims for up to 40 minutes whilst cardiovascular, respiratory and metabolic responses are recorded and monitored.
With a growing interest in competitive open water swimming amongst children and the introduction of Open Water swimming as an Olympic sport in Beijing in 2008, the data gathered in this study has great connotations for both selection criteria in this sport, and risk assessment in any projects involving paediatric immersion in cold water.
Project Officer: Dr Flora Bird
Supervisor: Professor Mike Tipton.
