Accuracy of parents in measuring body temperature with a tympanic thermometer

Robinson, Joan L; Jou, Hsing; Spady, Donald W

The mean absolute difference between the temperatures measured by the nurse using the home thermometer versus the hospital thermometer was 0.24 ± 0.22 °C. The higher reading was from the hospital thermometer in 25 of the 60 cases. There was agreement between the readings taken by the nurse from the two thermometers with regard to the presence of fever, except in one case where one reading was 38.4 °C and the other was 38.6 °C ( Table 2) . Nurses detected fever with a sensitivity of 94 % (95 % CI 71-100 %), a specificity of 88 % (95% CI 75-96 %), a positive predictive value of 76% (95% CI 53-92 %), and a negative predictive value of 97% (95% CI 87-100 %) ( Table 2 ). In comparing the readings obtained by the parent using the home thermometer to those obtained by the nurse using the hospital thermometer, the mean absolute difference was 0.51 ± 0.63 °C, with 72% of the readings differing by ≥ 0.5 °C.