RESPONSES OF THE HANDS TO LOCAL COLD EXPOSURE AMONG AFRICAN AND LOCAL STUDENTS IN THE ARCTIC UNIVERSITY

Introduction: Little is known on the adaptation of African students to living in circumpolar areas. Aim: To study similarities and differences in temperature responses to local cold exposures in African students and permanent residents of the Russian Arctic. Methods: A series of thermal images of the hands of 15 students from Central Africa and 18 students - permanent residents of the Russian Arctic were taken at arrival, after adapting to the room conditions for 15-20 minutes, and after 1-minute cooling of the right hand in cold water with a temperature of 2 °C until the initial temperature of the hand was restored. The study was conducted in a spacious room with an air temperature of 22 °C. Numeric data were analyzed using non-parametric Mann-Whitney tests after normality assessment using Shapiro-Wilk tests. Results: The initial temperature of the hands was significantly different between the local and the African students (32.75 °C vs. 28.56 °C, p < 0.001). Immediately after cooling, the differences between the groups did not reach the level of significance (33.35 °C vs. 29.77 °C, p = 0.343). Hand temperature in local students recovered significantly faster than in African students (0.70 °C/min vs. 0.26 °C/min, p < 0.001). The recovery time for the temperature of the hands among African students was significantly longer than among the locals (28.57 min vs. 14.83 min, p < 0.001). The difference between the initial and the final temperatures between the groups was greater among African students, but the results were inconclusive (1.21 °C vs. 0.63 °C, p = 0.086). Conclusions. On findings contribute to the knowledge on the differences in responses to local cold exposure between local Arctic residents and visitors from warmer countries. The results of the study also indicate the possibility of using matrix infrared thermography to assess local cold effects on human hands.