Normal Body Temperature: A Systematic Review

• Published in: Open forum infectious diseases Vol. 6; no. 4; p. ofz032
• Main Authors: Geneva, Ivayla I, Cuzzo, Brian, Fazili, Tasaduq, Javaid, Waleed
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: US Oxford University Press 01.04.2019
• Subjects: Review; fever; normothermia; body temperature; hypothermia
• ISSN: 2328-8957; 2328-8957
• DOI: 10.1093/ofid/ofz032

Abstract PubMed was searched from 1935 to December 2017 with a variety of search phrases among article titles. The references of the identified manuscripts were then manually searched. The inclusion criteria were as follows: (1) the paper presented data on measured normal body temperature of healthy human subjects ages 18 and older, (2) a prospective design was used, and (3) the paper was written in or translated into the English language. Thirty-six articles met the inclusion criteria. This comprised 9227 measurement sites from 7636 subjects. The calculated ranges (mean ± 2 standard deviations) were 36.32–37.76 (rectal), 35.76–37.52 (tympanic), 35.61–37.61 (urine), 35.73–37.41 (oral), and 35.01–36.93 (axillary). Older adults (age ≥60) had lower temperature than younger adults (age <60) by 0.23°C, on average. There was only insignificant gender difference. Compared with the currently established reference point for normothermia of 36.8°C, our means are slightly lower but the difference likely has no physiological importance. We conclude that the most important patient factors remain site of measurement and patient’s age.