An individualized human thermoregulation model for Chinese adults

Abstract

An individualized human thermoregulation model for the prediction of skin temperature was established for Chinese adults. Considering the differences in body size and composition between western and Chinese people, a standard Chinese model was built based on the anthropometric and physiological data of Chinese people, and then it was individualized with four parameters including height, weight, age and sex. Sensitivity analysis revealed that the difference in height and weight could result in a variance of 1.2 °C in calculated mean skin temperature. Both the standard and the individualized Chinese model were tested with the experimental data of Chinese adults under different ambient conditions. Significant improvements were found in mean and local skin temperatures predicted by the standard Chinese model compared to the standard Fiala model. The maximum bias of the predicted mean skin temperature decreased from 0.79 °C to 0.48 °C, and that of local skin temperature changed from 2.11 °C to 1.46 °C. Further significant improvements were found when comparing the individualized Chinese model with the standard Chinese model. For the individualized model, the mean bias of mean skin temperature between prediction and measurement ranged from 0.20 °C to 0.38 °C, and the mean bias as well as its standard deviation of most local skin temperature was less than 1 °C. Prediction accuracy was also validated in the extensive comparison with other researchers' experiments on Chinese subjects. Prediction accuracy of Chinese adults' skin temperature could be improved via the modification and individualization of thermoregulation model with Chinese physiological characteristics.