THe Sensation of Cold in Relation to the Incidence of the Common Cold in Male and Female Students

Abstract

A questionnaire concerning some symptoms related to cold was sent to 200 male and 200 female students. A greater proportion of the females than of the males had a tendency to feel cold and to have cold hands and feet. Nasal discharge or obstruction on returning to room temperature after exposure to cold was also more common in the female students. These results were compared with those of previously reported experiments, in which it was found that women usually had a lower skin temperature than men and that the decrease in the temperatures of the finger, foot and nasal mucosa on exposure to cold air was generally greater in women.

The male students had an average of 3.0 common colds per year, as compared with 3.2 in the females. In the subjects with more than three common colds per year the tendency to cold hands was slightly more common than in those with three or fewer common colds. The personal impression that cooling might provoke a common cold was slightly more frequent among subjects with more than three than in those with three or fewer common colds per year.