Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on nurses (n= 400) at public and private Mazandaran hospitals. An online questionnaire was used that consisted of two parts: demographic variables and NICS. The scale was translated into Persian first and then validated using both construct and content validity.

Results: The findings from an exploratory factor analysis yielded six factors that explained 53.12% of the total variance of the NICS. The confirmatory factor analysis demonstrated that the model had a good fit and the inter-item correlation values of the factors indicated good internal consistency.

METHODS: The forehead and tympanic temperatures of 615 subjects were measured simultaneously in three exposed SARS-COV-2 groups at one hospital in Iran, during April 2020. These comparisons were evaluated by Bland-Altman Plot, repeatability, Passing-Bablok regression and Lin's concordance correlation coefficient. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was done to describe the discrimination accuracy of a diagnostic test. The study adhered to STROBE checklist for cross-sectional studies.

RESULTS: A Bland-Altman plot indicated that the limits of agreement between the forehead and tympanic temperature were -0.259 to +0.19°C. Passing-Bablok regression analysis illustrated that the infrared forehead was not linearly related to tympanic temperatures (reference method), with a slope estimate that was significantly different from 1.00. The infrared forehead thermometer showed poor precision and lower accuracy than the tympanic. The forehead temperature readings had 60.0% sensitivity and 44.4% specificity (p > .05) to predict disease.