Before Taking Your Temperature Don't Eat Or Drink

Apparently if you eat hot or cold food before taking your temperature, the results may not be as accurate as possible!

Now you may say, "Hey that's obvious!" Indeed, even the press release for this breakthrough says (somewhat self-consciously...),

According to recent research by nurses at the University of Virginia Health System, your mother was always right when she told you not to eat or drink anything before taking your temperature.

And since basically in their own press release they start out saying "Uh oh, we're so busted. There's a good chance this will make News that Vexes!", they then attempt some spin control by trying to justify the research:

"It's something that comes up in our practice on a regular basis," said Tricia Jenkins, RN, a member of the research team. "Nurses take temperatures several times a day, every day, so the research proposition was really applicable."

Note it took a research team to come up with this conclusion.

I really must quote a bit more from the press release because it's just so rich:

As the first research examining the effects of beverage consumption on the accuracy of oral electronic thermometers, the nurses' findings were presented recently at the annual Academy of Medical Surgical Nurses Convention in Las Vegas. Previous research on the topic used only men as research subjects [testing only men leaves the door open for further study with women subjects! -ed.] and tested oral temperature with mercury-filled thermometers. "It's great to say we can make a change in practice," Quatrara said. "It's always best to provide patient care based on evidence rather than guessing at it."

Yay, no more guessing that hot water makes your mouth hot and ice cubes make your mouth cold! You may thank Beth Quatrara, RN, MSN, APRN for these revelations! I hope she enjoyed her free trip to Las Vegas to present this data!