Effect of Auricular Position on Body Temperature Measurement with Tympanic Thermometers: A Quasi Experimental Study

Abstract

Background: With the COVID-19 pandemic, body temperature measurement has begun to be widely used in the diagnosis of the coronavirus disease. When measuring body temperature, it is important to obtain the core temperature measurement. This study compared the results of body temperature obtained with the tympanic membrane thermometer—which is one of the methods that best reflect the body temperature—with or without positioning the auricle. Aims: The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of auricle position on body temperature measurements made with tympanic membrane thermometer in adult patients. Materials and Methods: A quasi-experimental design that employed a pre-test and a post-test was used in this study. A total of 143 patients who fit the inclusion criteria of the study were included in the sample. For analysis of the data, frequencies, percentages, means and standard deviations were calculated, and the significance of the difference between paired values was tested in order to investigate the effects of auricle position on measurement values. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) 22.0 was used in analyzing the data obtained in this study. Results: The difference between the values of measurement taken in these two separate positions was found to be 0.31 0C, and the Bland–Altman plot showed that the differences were distributed systematically around the value 0.31. Conclusions: It was found in the comparison of two positions that there was a significant difference between the tympanic thermometer measurements made by positioning the auricle and those without positioning.