Step 11: results in language
The result of this concept analysis is identification of the
essential elements of the concept of fever, as follows:
• Fever is an element of a coordinated response to a perceived
immunological threat (biological or chemical).
• The acute-phase response including fever is adaptive and
involves autonomic, behavioural, and neuroendocrine
processes.
• Fever involves an increase in the body’s set point temperature.
Thermoregulatory control remains intact during
fever; fever is self-limiting.
• This rise in temperature is the cardinal sign of fever and is
an elevation of greater than 1C above normal diurnal
body temperature. There is no ‘absolute’ temperature at
which fever is defined.
• The altered set point is defended by heat production and
heat conservation mechanisms of the body until the initiating
threat is removed.