ReviewInternational journal of environmental research and public health2019
The Thermal Effects of Water Immersion on Health Outcomes: An Integrative Review.
Review in International journal of environmental research and public health, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 37 papers, 6 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
37 citing papers in PubMed, 6 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 97 citations in OpenAlex.
- In water or on land? A network meta-analysis of aquatic and land-based exercise interventions for pain and disability in chronic lower back pain.Frontiers in medicine · 2026Pooled it
- Optimal dosage ranges of various exercise types for enhancing timed up and go performance in Parkinson's disease patients: a systematic review and Bayesian network meta-analysis.Frontiers in aging neuroscience · 2024Pooled it
- Sleep and spa therapies: What is the role of balneotherapy associated with exercise? A systematic review.Frontiers in physiology · 2022Pooled it
- Clinical efficacy of medical hydrology: an umbrella review.International journal of biometeorology · 2021Pooled it
- Head-Out Water-Based Protocols to Assess Cardiorespiratory Fitness-Systematic Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2020Pooled it
- The effects of aerobic and resistance exercise on blood pressure in uncomplicated and at risk pregnancies: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Women's health (London, England)Pooled it
- Contrast Heat-Cold Versus Thermoneutral Showering in Trained Combat Sport Athletes: A Randomized Field Trial of Recovery Outcomes.Journal of sports science & medicine · 2026Trial
- The Benefits of an Integral HAMMAM Experience Combining Hydrotherapy and Swedish Massage on Pain, Subjective Well-Being and Quality of Life in Women with Endometriosis-Related Chronic Pelvic Pain: A Randomized Controlled Trial.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2024Trial
- Changes in Muscle Contractile Properties after Cold- or Warm-Water Immersion Using Tensiomyography: A Cross-Over Randomised Trial.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2020Trial
- How does premenstrual syndrome affect occupational performance?BMC women's health · 2026Article
- The effectiveness of hydrotherapy on quality of life and exercise capacity in patients with cardiac diseases: a scoping review.American journal of cardiovascular disease · 2026Review
- Effects of Swimming at Different Water Temperatures on Muscle and Adipose Tissue Adaptation in Diet-Induced Obese Mice.International journal of medical sciences · 2026Article
- Touch, temperature, and relief: a multilevel integrative model of hedonic regulation in massage and thermal therapies.Frontiers in physiology · 2026Article
- Dual Impact of Swimming on Intervertebral Disc Health: Biomechanical, Clinical, and Translational Perspectives.Cureus · 2025Review
- Effects of Whole-Body and Lower-Body Cold-Water Immersion on Exercise-Induced Pain Score, Muscle Damage Indices, and Maximal Voluntary Isometric Contractions.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Article
- Aquatic exercise interventions in the treatment of musculoskeletal upper extremity disorders: A scoping review.Clinical rehabilitation · 2025Article
- The relationship between muscle oxygen saturation kinetics and maximal blood lactate accumulation rate across varying sprint cycle durations.European journal of sport science · 2025Article
- Article
- Unravelling the benefits of thermal waters enhancing oral health: a pilot study.BMC oral health · 2024Observational
- Rehabilitation Technologies by Integrating Exoskeletons, Aquatic Therapy, and Quantum Computing for Enhanced Patient Outcomes.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Hydrotherapy is widely used for the treatment and rehabilitation of patients, but it can also be applied to prevent diseases in healthy people. This review investigates the health effects of water immersion, a form of hydrotherapy, and the mechanisms by which the properties of water elicit such an effect. We searched PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, and CINAHL to identify relevant articles, of which 13 met the inclusion criteria. Various factors of water immersion were investigated in the 13 selected articles, including water temperature, immersion height, and application area. With respect to health effects, warm and cold water immersion affects the cardiovascular and neuromuscular systems, respectively. Nine articles focused on the effects of warm water immersion, explaining its thermal effect in relation to changes in disease-related serum substance levels and hemodynamic changes. While the sample population in most studies comprised young adults, two articles applied partial water immersion to the legs of elderly subjects to assess its effect on sleep. Because the water immersion protocols applied in the 13 articles were inconsistent, the health benefits could not be clearly explained. However, we expect the present findings to be beneficial for providing research guidelines for studies on the application of water immersion.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.