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Randomized trial · measured the question itself

Trial in 3018 adults: cold showers cut sick leave, but not days ill

Buijze and colleagues · PloS one · 2016

Original title: The Effect of Cold Showering on Health and Work: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

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What the study found

Mixed

Sickness absence from work fell 29% with cold showers (incident rate ratio: 0.71, P = 0.003). Number of illness days did not differ. No serious side effects related to cold showers.

The study at a glance

Type of study
Randomized trial
Who or what was studied
3,018 people · 3018 adults aged 18 to 65 with no serious illness, new to cold showers
What was tested
Hot-to-cold shower ending with 30, 60 or 90 seconds of cold for 30 days, then cold at own choice for 60 days, vs normal showers
What it measured
The question itself: muscle recovery, mood and immune health
How long
13 weeks
Who has a stake
No stake declared
One author worked for insurer Achmea; no products to declare.
Journal
PloS one, 2016
Source
PubMed record 27631616. This page is based on the abstract only.

How much this study counts

  • ✓Randomized: people were put into groups by chance, so the groups start out alike.
  • ✓Large: 3,018 people.
  • •Lasted 13 weeks.
  • ✓Measured the question itself: muscle recovery, mood and immune health.
  • ✓No competing interests declared.
  • •Summarized from the PubMed abstract only. The full paper may hold details the abstract leaves out.

✓ Strength– Limit• Note

These points come from fixed rules about the type of study, its size and length, what it measured, and who has a stake. Every study on Digestery gets the same rules.

Where this study sits

Each dot is one on-topic paper on this question. Steps near the top answer the question more directly.

↑ Stronger evidence

  1. Trials in people: muscle recovery and mood

    8

    1 benefit, 1 mixed, 5 no difference, 1 harm

    ↑ This study is the ringed dot

  2. Trials in people: other measures

    8

    2 benefit, 1 mixed, 4 no difference, 1 harm

  3. Trials in people: lab tests or safety

    3

    1 benefit, 2 no difference

  4. Population studies

    3

    2 benefit, 1 mixed

  5. Blood levels and genes

    0

    None among the papers we read.

↓ Weaker evidence

  • Points to benefit
  • Mixed
  • No difference
  • No direction
  • Points to harm

How it fits with the other research

The short answer to “Does cold plunging help recovery and mood?”

Eases soreness a little; mood unproven.

Confidence: low. Based on 30 on-topic papers.

Read the full answer

Of the other 7 papers on the same step: 1 benefit, 5 no difference, 1 harm. This one found mixed. It differs from most of them.

  • Quoted in “What we found”: In a trial of 3018 adults, cold showers cut days off sick from work by 29%, but did not reduce the number of days people were ill.
  • Part of the finding “Immune health: fewer sick days, not fewer illnesses”.
  • Marked as a key paper in the research timeline: Largest trial: 3018 adults, cold showers, sick days.
  • Open item for a person: Buijze 2016 names trial registration NTR5183 in its abstract, but the record's trial registration field is empty.

Other papers on the same step

See all 30 studies on this question

How this page was made

Label

First read of the abstract
Claude Sonnet
Independent second read
Claude Haiku
Differences settled
The two reads differed. The reviewer checked the abstract and kept the first read. Claude Opus 5.5.
Headline
Claude Sonnet, from the checked study record. A script checked its numbers and wording.
Numbers
Checked against the abstract by a script
“How much this study counts”
Fixed rules, the same for every study
Source check by a person
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