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Forehead or ear temperature measurement cannot replace rectal measurements, except for screening purposes

Overview of attention for article published in BMC Pediatrics, January 2018
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About this Attention Score

  • In the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • Among the highest-scoring outputs from this source (#50 of 3,365)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (96th percentile)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (96th percentile)

Mentioned by

news
7 news outlets
policy
1 policy source
twitter
7 X users
googleplus
1 Google+ user
video
1 YouTube creator

Citations

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48 Dimensions

Readers on

mendeley
83 Mendeley
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Title
Forehead or ear temperature measurement cannot replace rectal measurements, except for screening purposes
Published in
BMC Pediatrics, January 2018
DOI 10.1186/s12887-018-0994-1
Pubmed ID
Authors

Christian Backer Mogensen, Lena Wittenhoff, Gitte Fruerhøj, Stephen Hansen

Abstract

Measuring rectal temperature in children is the gold standard, but ear or forehead measures are less traumatic and faster. The quality of non-invasive devices has improved but concerns remain whether they are reliable enough to substitute rectal thermometers. The aim was to evaluate in a real-life children population whether the forehead or ear temperature measurements could be used in screening to detect fever and if the agreement with the rectal temperature for different age groups is acceptable for clinical use. Cross-sectional clinical study comparing temporal and tympanic temperatures to rectal temperature in 0-18-year-old children. The ear thermometer was a Pro 4000 Thermoscan, the temporal Exergen TAT. Rectal temperature ≥ 38.0 °C was defined as fever. Among 995 children, 39% had a fever. The ear thermometer had a significantly greater ability to detect fever than the temporal thermometer (AUC 0.972; 95% CI: 0.963-0.981 versus AUC 0.931; 95% CI: 0.915-0.947, p < 0.0001). Both devices had the lowest sensitivity in the youngest and oldest children, and only the ear thermometer reached a sensitivity above 90% in the 0.5-5-year age group. The Bland-Altman analysis showed that the 95% limits of agreement for the temporal thermometer was between - 1.2 to + 1.5 °C and for the ear thermometer between - 0.97 to + 1.07 °C. Based on a large sample of children, the temporal measurement of temperature is not currently recommendable, but with the technology used in this study the ear measurement proved useful for screening purposes, especially among children aged 6 months to 5 years. For the exact measurement of temperature, the rectal method is still recommended.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 7 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 83 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Unknown 83 100%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Bachelor 17 20%
Student > Master 11 13%
Researcher 8 10%
Other 6 7%
Student > Ph. D. Student 6 7%
Other 13 16%
Unknown 22 27%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Medicine and Dentistry 20 24%
Engineering 13 16%
Nursing and Health Professions 11 13%
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 2 2%
Physics and Astronomy 2 2%
Other 10 12%
Unknown 25 30%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 65. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 17 December 2023.
All research outputs
#644,345
of 25,011,749 outputs
Outputs from BMC Pediatrics
#50
of 3,365 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#15,421
of 452,100 outputs
Outputs of similar age from BMC Pediatrics
#4
of 91 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,011,749 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 97th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 3,365 research outputs from this source. They typically receive more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 8.1. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 98% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 452,100 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 96% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 91 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 96% of its contemporaries.