Screening for hypothermia in the ambulatory elderly. The Maine experience
L. Keilson, D. Lambert, D. Fabian, J. Thebarge, T. Ackerson, G. Palomaki and W. Turgeon
This study investigated the prevalence of low body temperatures in 97
elderly and 20 nonelderly subjects. To the best of our knowledge, no
earlier survey has been conducted with a North American population. To
ensure comparability with the British National Survey performed in 1973,
urine temperatures were collected as a proxy measure of core temperatures.
The urine-collecting funnel was modified to minimize cooling artifact
introduced by the device. Study subjects were selected from an internal
medicine clinic that serves the poor, a federally subsidized housing
project, and a subsidized housing project in northernmost Maine. A youthful
population (mean age, 32.3 years) was chosen to provide a comparative
population to elderly participants (mean age, 73.9 years). Based on the
British National Survey, the expected prevalence of low body temperatures
(less than 35.5 degrees C) was 10%. The present study detected no low body
temperatures, and the average urine and mouth temperatures were 0.3 and
0.19 degree C warmer, respectively, than those in the British National
Survey. Youthful subjects were not significantly different from elderly
participants. There appears to be no evidence from this study that low
early-morning basal body temperature (less than 35.5 degrees C) is a common
geriatric occurrence in ambient room temperature.
