Study objective 

To assess the ability of parents to subjectively evaluate their children for fever and to compare their assessments with temperature measurements made with the use of a noncontact tympanic (NCT) or rectal glass mercury thermometer.

A secondary goal was to assess how well a recently developed definition of fever for NCT thermometers, when used in the ear-equivalent mode (temperature of 37.7° C or more), performed in a clinical situation.

Methods 

This 6-month prospective observational study employed a convenience sample of 180 children, aged birth to 4 years, who presented to the emergency department of a tertiary care children's hospital.

Parents were asked to subjectively assess whether their child had a fever.

The child's temperature was then measured with an NCT thermometer (three times in the rectal-equivalent mode and three times in the actual-ear mode).

Both the subjective assessment and the NCT temperatures were compared with the rectal temperature measured by a rectal glass mercury thermometer.

Results 

The mean age of participants was 14.6±11.8 months (range, 2 days to 48 months) ; 56% were boys.

The sensitivity of parental detection of fever by subjective means was 81.8% and the specificity 76.5%. The parent and the rectal glass thermometer agreed 79% of the time (95% confidence interval [Cl], 73% to 85%). The sensitivity of the first temperature reading obtained with the NCT thermometer in rectal-equivalent mode was 74. (...)