The impact of increasing age on body odor has become an important issue as\nour understanding of underlying skin changes in older people has increased. Therefore,\ncosmetic skin products especially for the needs of the elderly are of growing importance.\nThis randomized single-blind crossover study assessed the deodorizing efficacy of two\ncosmetic products with different pH values on the age-specific odor of an elderly female\nsubject panel (60 years). The two test products, adjusted to pH 4.0 and pH 5.8 were\napplied to the axillae once daily for three consecutive days after standardized washing of\nthe axillae. The untreated axilla was used as a control. Six odor judges evaluated the\nefficacy of both products. Additionally, bactericidal and fungicidal activity was\ninvestigated with in vitro microbiologic tests. The pH 4.0 water in oil (W/O) emulsion\nsignificantly reduced axillary malodor in 44 elderly subjects at 8 and 24 h after treatment,\ncompared with controls (untreated axillae) (p < 0.001 after 8 and 24 h), whereas pH 5.8\nemulsion had no effect (p = 0.441 after 8 h; p = 0.425 after 24 h). Moreover, the pH 4.0\nemulsion reduced axillary malodor at 8 and 24 h after treatment, compared with the pH 5.8\nemulsion just narrowly missing statistical significance (p = 0.078 after 8 h; p = 0.053 after\n24 h). Microbiologic in vitro tests showed that the pH 4.0 emulsion reduced the levels of\nodor-producing bacteria S. epidermidis and C. minutissimum after 1 h (2.98 log and\n4.25 log). After 24 h, levels of S. aureus (>5.50 log), P. acnes (>5.30 log) and E. coli (>5.46 log) were further reduced whereas no effect was observed for pH 5.8.\nA pH 4.0 emulsion significantly reduced axillary malodor for up to 24 h after application\nin females aged at least 60 years. This reduction in malodor is very likely due to a\nreduction of odor-producing bacteria.
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