Physical and Mental Effects of Bathing: A Randomized Intervention Study

Table 4

Health-related quality of life (SF-8 scores) reported retrospectively for each intervention period.

	Bathing			Showering			Difference	p value
	Mean		SD	Mean		SD	Mean
General health	54.5	±	6.2	50.2	±	7.0	4.3	0.010
Physical functioning	51.2	±	4.2	50.7	±	4.2	0.5	0.576
Role physical	50.5	±	5.7	50.9	±	5.1	−0.4	0.680
Bodily pain	50.4	±	8.0	49.4	±	8.8	1.0	0.381
Vitality	51.2	±	6.6	49.2	±	5.8	2.1	0.110
Social functioning	50.2	±	7.8	46.4	±	7.3	3.8	0.016
Mental health	49.9	±	6.5	47.0	±	5.7	2.9	0.021
Role emotional	49.6	±	7.7	48.3	±	4.7	1.3	0.358
Physical component summary	50.8	±	6.0	50.4	±	6.0	0.4	0.691
Mental component summary	48.9	±	6.6	45.6	±	5.4	3.3	0.010

p<0.05 and p<0.01.