Physicians' perceptions regarding body temperature in health and disease

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Clinical Practice
• Thermometry

Background:

• Body temperature monitoring is a long-standing health indicator.
• Physicians' understanding of clinical thermometry concepts remains largely uncharacterized.
• Accurate temperature assessment is crucial for disease diagnosis and management.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate and characterize physicians' perceptions of clinical thermometry.
• To assess current understanding of normal body temperature and fever ranges.
• To identify differences in thermometry concepts among medical professionals.

Main Methods:

• Descriptive analysis of survey responses from physicians and physicians-in-training.
• A questionnaire was used to gather data on body temperature perceptions.
• Statistical analysis was performed on 268 completed surveys.

Main Results:

• 75% of respondents defined normal body temperature as 37°C (98.6°F).
• Only 4% specified a body site for temperature measurement.
• Widespread agreement exists on diurnal variation, but not its magnitude.
• Significant disagreement was found regarding fever thresholds.
• A preference for the Fahrenheit scale was observed.
• Medical students' perceptions differed from those of graduate physicians.

Conclusions:

• Physicians' understanding of normal body temperature is not consistently linked to specific measurement sites.
• There is a lack of consensus on fever definition, impacting clinical decision-making.
• Educational interventions may be needed to standardize understanding of clinical thermometry among medical professionals.