United States: A new study finds that 98.6 degrees is not the standard body temperature. It varies from person to person and is influenced by sex, age, weight, and height.
“Most people, including many doctors, still think that everyone’s normal temperature is 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit. In fact, what’s normal depends on the person and the situation, and it’s rarely as high as 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit,” said Dr. Julie Parsonnet, MD, a professor of medicine and of epidemiology and population health at Stanford.
The research was published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine. Nowadays, the average body temperature for most people is around 97.9 degrees Fahrenheit. In future research, Dr. Parsonnet aims to explore individual interpretations of fever and how a consistently higher or lower normal temperature might impact life expectancy.
“There’s a lot of temperature data in the world, so there’s a lot of opportunity to actually learn something about it,” she said.
In past decades, it has become clear that the typical human body temperature is not exactly 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit. Instead, most people tend to have a slightly lower baseline temperature.
For newborns, the average body temperature is around 99.5 degrees Fahrenheit. Children typically have an average temperature of about 97.52 degrees Fahrenheit and a temperature above 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit is considered a fever. If your baby is under 3 months old and has a fever exceeding 100.4º F, or if your child, regardless of age, has a fever of 104º F or a history of febrile seizures, it’s important to contact your child’s paediatrician for guidance.
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