Is Showering More Hygienic Than Bathing? What Does The Science Say?

Recently on Reddit, one user asked the question "is showering more hygienic than bathing because you aren't sitting in a bunch of butthole and foot soup?"

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While we could debate until your fingers turn to prunes about whether the water in your bath constitutes a foot/bum soup, let's focus on the cleanliness aspect and overall health. You may not be hugely surprised to learn there isn't a huge amount of science conducted on the topic. But there is a little research, focusing on cleanliness as well as other areas of health.

First off, showers are generally considered to be more hygienic than baths. Though baths generally have enough water in them for it not to be considered a bum soup, there is an obvious advantage to having the water you have just washed your body with flow quickly down the drain, rather than hanging around in your tub.

There isn't a huge amount of research into this topic, though it is of interest to some medical researchers, for instance in preventing or controlling infection. One such paper, which looked at seven previous studies involving bathing, bed bathing (i.e. washing bedbound patients in their beds), and showering found only small differences between methods.

"No statistically significant impact in terms of reduced skin colonization was described irrespective of bathing product, type or frequency," the study explains, "except for a reduced burden of C. difficile on the skin of infected patients after showering compared to bathing."

"In terms of efficacy against C. difficile, there was variable efficacy of routine bathing practices in removal of C. difficile spores on the skin of infected patients (e.g. significant decrease of spores on hands, arm and chest skin but not on other skin sites)," the study added, though it should be noted this was a study of hospital patients, and focusing on one bacteria. 

"Overall, showers were significantly more effective than baths to remove spores."

Generally, surveys have found that showers make people feel cleaner than baths, though this is of course subjective.

However, it isn't clear-cut whether getting cleaner is actually that great for you. There is a wide variety of bacteria, viruses, and other microbes on your skin forming your microbiome. It is an ongoing area of research as to whether cleaning too often can disrupt your skin's microbiome, potentially with detriment to your skin health. On top of this, there is a little research on other aspects of health which suggest that baths could be better for you in some regards.

One randomized controlled trial, for example, had participants showering for two weeks, and bathing for two weeks, while health and mental health indicators were measured. 

This trial assessed the effects of a total of four weeks of intervention consisting of two weeks of immersion bathing and two weeks of showering without immersion, in order to compare the physical and mental effects between the two interventions. They found significant differences between the two methods of getting the dirt off your bodies.

"Visual analog scale scores were significantly better for fatigue, stress, pain, and smile and tended to be better for self-reported heath and skin condition after bathing intervention than after showering intervention," the team explained in their paper. "The SF-8 Health Survey showed significantly better general health, mental health, role emotional, and social functioning scores. Profile of Mood State scores were lower for stress, tension-anxiety, anger-hostility, and depression-dejection."

Though the study did not control for factors like temperature, and was conducted on people in Japan whom they note enjoy bathing in general, bathing appeared beneficial to the participants involved.

"Immersion bathing, but not shower bathing, exerts hyperthermic action that induces increased blood flow and metabolic waste elimination, which may afford physical refreshment," they added. "Immersion bathing should improve both physical and emotional aspects of quality of life."

In short, there isn't that much difference in terms of hygiene between bathing and showering, unless you are trying to get rid of a very specific diarrhea-causing bacteria, and bathing could be a little better for your overall health, though more study on that topic is needed. In shorter; don't worry too much, and have a scrub however you enjoy it. 

The content of this article is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.