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in collaboration with
Dr Gérald Kierzek (Medical Director of Doctissimo)
In any case, this is what a study that has just been published in the journal JAMA concludes: forehead thermometers would be less precise than oral thermometers for detecting fever in black-skinned patients.
According to the authors of this work, this difference in precision can lead to delays in treatment and, one can imagine, a greater loss of opportunity for these patients.
Comparative temperature readings
To achieve these results, researchers from Emory University in Atlanta and the John A. Burns School of Medicine at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu studied the results provided by the different types of thermometers, to identify the presence of a fever in 2,031 black patients and 2,344 white patients affected by an infection.
Result: they found that forehead temperature readings tended to be lower than oral temperature readings in black people, but not in white people. The prevalence of fever detected in black patients was “ 10.1% with the forehead thermometer against 13.2% with the oral thermometer. But in white patients, the prevalence was 10.8% with frontal and 10.2% with oral write the authors, who believe that “ 23% of fevers in black patients could go undetected with a forehead thermometer”.
Equipment calibrated most often on light skin
Other studies, already published, have shown that the results of pulse oximeters, used to determine the amount of oxygen in the blood, can be erroneous due to the color of the skin of the patients.
Indeed, these errors seem to be related to the operation of these devices, based on infrared technology. For example, pulse oximeters send light through the finger to a sensor that uses the light to detect the color of your blood and measure blood oxygen levels. Forehead thermometers use infrared technology to measure the heat energy your body gives off.
If a device is not calibrated for darker skin tones, pigmentation can affect how light will be absorbed and how infrared technology works. Hence the erroneous result.
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Not enough people of color in studies
The findings of these studies raise several questions. The first concerns the patients themselves and the delay in diagnosis or even the non-treatment of certain pathologies, due to these errors caused by the equipment used.
The second comment concerns the studies themselves, which do not include enough people of color to be taken into account in the development of this type of medical device.