MATERNAL SCREENING OF CHILDHOOD FEVER BY PALPATION

Fever is a common chief complaint for the pediatric emergency patient. It has been reported that a mother's tactile examination of a child, as historical information, offers little useful information, The study objective is to determine whether mothers can accurately detect the p resence or absence of a fever without using a thermometer, The study i s a prospective comparison of historical information with measured tem perature, performed over a two-month period, The settings are in two i nner-city university hospital emergency departments, Mothers of childr en less than 10 years old who presented to the emergency department wi th any chief complaint were selected as subjects. The interventions we re interviewing the mother and the performance of routine vital signs on the child, Three hundred and twenty-two mothers participated, Of 12 4 febrile children, 104 mothers accurately detected a fever in their c hildren (sensitivity 84%), while of 198 afebrile children, 150 mothers accurately detected the absence of fever (specificity 76%), We conclu de that mothers are able to provide accurate information about the pre sence or absence of fever in their children by touch and without the u se of a thermometer, Thus emergency physicians should heed the histori cal statements of mothers presenting with only the subjective complain ts of fever and no history of thermometer use.