So, what's best? Accuracy and acceptance of thermometers in triage and inpatients in a low-resource tropical setting - The MaTe study.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

We searched for the most-suitable thermometry method in the low-resource, tropical setting of Sierra Leone, both in terms of accuracy and also patient and user acceptance.

Methods

We conducted a prospective comparative study of different methods of body temperature measurement. Each participant had their temperature taken by four different methods: non-contact infrared temperature (NCIT), axillary, tympanic membrane and rectal measurements. Rectal temperature was considered clinical gold standard. Primary outcome was predicted sensitivity and specificity of thermometry methods in detecting fever (rectal temperature ≥38.0 °C). Questionnaires were used to explore patient and healthcare worker attitudes towards different methods of temperature-taking.

Results

SUBMITTER: Turnbull A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10873737 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature