Fever assessment in children under five: Are we following the guidelines?

Table 1 Demographic data of pediatric patients with or without fever

Demographic data	Total, n = 136 (100)	Febrile1, n = 36 (26.5)	Afebrile, n = 100 (73.5)	P value
Sex				0.3252
Male	80 (58.8)	24 (66.7)	56 (56)
Female	56 (41.1)	12 (33.3)	44 (44)
Nationality				0.2852
Bahraini	97 (71.3)	23 (63.9)	74 (74)
Non-Bahraini	39 (28.6)	13 (36.1)	26 (26)
Age at presentation (mo)				0.0273
0-3	39 (28.7)	4 (11.1)	35 (35)
> 3-6	8 (5.9)	4 (11.1)	4 (4)
> 6-12	17 (12.5)	5 (13.9)	12 (12)
> 12-36	29 (21.3)	12 (33.3)	17 (17)
> 36-60	43 (31.6)	11 (30.6)	32 (32)
Weight on admission (kg), (n = 124)	8.3 (4.0-13.3)	10.2 (7.3-13.0)	7.1 (3.7-13.3)	0.0344
Anatomical site of temperature measurement, (n = 42)				1.0002
Axillary	40 (95.2)	16 (40)	24 (60)
Rectal	2 (4.8)	1 (50)	1 (50)

¹Included any patient who had a spike in temperature ≥ 38 °C during the first 48 h of admission.

²Fisher’s exact test.

³Pearson’s χ² test.

⁴Mann-Whitney U test.

Boldface indicates a statistically significant difference with P < 0.05. Data are presented as n (%) or median (interquartile range).