Reliability and validity of tympanic temperature measurement in persons with high spinal cord injuries

Tympanic temperature measurements in the able bodied have been well studied and validated in previous investigations. This validation has not been studied in individuals with high spinal cord injuries where autonomic control is different above and below the level of the lesion, which makes the accuracy of this measurement for core body temperature questionable. In this correlational study we look at the reliability and validity of tympanic temperature measurement in individuals with high spinal cord injuries in comparison to oral and rectal temperature measures. The rectal measurement proved to be the most reliable with an r value of 0.975 overall. The oral was minimally better than the tympanic with r values of 0.88 and 0.86, respectively. The validity of the oral measure in predicting changes in the rectal temperature (gold standard) was slightly better than the tympanic with r values of 0.88 and 0.77, respectively. Both the oral and tympanic measures accurately reflected changes in the rectal (core) temperature.