Skip to main content
. 2018 Jan 26;18:15. doi: 10.1186/s12887-018-0994-1

Table 1.

Temporal and tympanic measurements of temperature as a screening tool for fever (> = 38.0 °C)

Screening measures (in %)
Age group Method No. of children Sensitivity 95% CI Specificity 95% CI Positive predictive value 95% CI Negative predictive value 95% CI Correctly classified 95% CI AUC 95% CI
Total Temporal 965 81 77-85 90 87-92 84 80-88 88 86-91 87 84-89 0.931 0.915-0.947
Tympanic 995 89 86-92 94 92-96 91 87-93 93 91-95 92 90-94 0.972 0.963-0.981
0-5 months Temporal 133 75 53-90 93 86-97 69 48-86 94 88-98 89 83-94 0.924 0.875-0.973
Tympanic 136 67 45-84 96 91-99 80 56-94 93 87-97 91 85-95 0.936 0.875-0.996
6-11 months Temporal 124 80 67-89 91 82-97 88 75-95 85 75-92 86 79-92 0.943 0.905-0.980
Tympanic 128 93 82-98 96 89-99 94 84-99 95 87-99 95 89-98 0.984 0.964-1.000
12-35 months Temporal 311 82 75-88 87 81-92 87 81-92 82 75-88 85 80-88 0.919 0.889-0.949
Tympanic 320 92 86-95 93 88-96 93 88-97 91 86-95 91 89-95 0.969 0.951-0.987
3-5 years Temporal 162 92 83-97 88 79-94 86 76-93 93 85-97 90 85-94 0.961 0.934-0.986
Tympanic 169 92 84-97 90 82-96 89 80-95 93 86-98 91 86-95 0.981 0.964-0.997
6-11 years Temporal 131 72 56-85 91 83-96 80 64-91 87 78-93 85 77-90 0.900 0.842-0.958
Tympanic 135 87 74-95 92 85-97 85 72-94 93 86-98 90 84-95 0.968 0.943-0.993
12-18 years Temporal 104 74 52-90 93 85-97 74 52-90 93 85-97 88 80-94 0.932 0.878-0.986
Tympanic 107 84 64-96 98 92-100 91 72-99 95 88-99 94 88-98 0.963 0.925-1.000

CI confidence interval, AUC area under receiver-operating characteristics curve