Abstract
Throughout the world, breath-hold diving has been reported in women divers in Korea (haenyeo) and Japan (ama), sponge divers in Greece, pearl divers in the South Pacific and shell divers in Australia. However, most of them have begun to use SCUBA (self-contained underwater breathing apparatus), whereas women divers in Korea and Japan have continued breath-hold diving. Since over 80% of haenyeos at present are in their sixties or older, it is predicted that breath-hold diving will cease to exist in a couple of decades. There is very little known about elderly haenyeos' cardiovascular changes. The purpose of the present study was to explore the diving patterns and heart rate of older Korean women divers while breath-hold diving in cold seawater.
Highlights
Throughout the world, breath-hold diving has been reported in women divers in Korea and Japan, sponge divers in Greece, pearl divers in the South Pacific and shell divers in Australia
Nine haenyeos participated in a field study in Jeju Island, Korea [mean (SD) 68 (10) yr in age, ranged from 56 to 83 yr]
Hong et al [2] reported an approximate 30% decrease in heart rate during breath-hold diving for young haenyeos, while we found a 20% decrease in heart rate for the elderly haenyeos
Summary
Throughout the world, breath-hold diving has been reported in women divers in Korea (haenyeo) and Japan (ama), sponge divers in Greece, pearl divers in the South Pacific and shell divers in Australia. Most of them have begun to use SCUBA (self-contained underwater breathing apparatus), whereas women divers in Korea and Japan have continued breath-hold diving. Since over 80% of haenyeos at present are in their sixties or older, it is predicted that breath-hold diving will cease to exist in a couple of decades. There is very little known about elderly haenyeos’ cardiovascular changes. The purpose of the present study was to explore the diving patterns and heart rate of older Korean women divers while breath-hold diving in cold seawater
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