Side-by-side comparison of parent vs. technician-collected respiratory swabs in low-income, multilingual, urban communities in the United States

• Published in: BMC public health 2022-01, Vol.22 (1), p.103-103, Article 103
• Main Authors: Chaves, Sandra S, Park, Ju-Hyeong, Prill, Mila M, Whitaker, Brett, Park, Reena, Chew, Ginger L
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Asthma; Asymptomatic; Bacteria; Child; Children; Children & youth; Chinese languages; Coefficients; Confidence intervals; Correlation analysis; COVID-19; Data analysis; Dry tube for specimen transport; Enrollments; Enteroviruses; Home-swabbing; Households; Humans; Income; Influenza; Low income areas; Low income groups; Medical laboratories; Mothers; Nose - microbiology; Pandemics; Parental swabbing; Parents; Pathogen detection; Pathogens; Public health; Quality assessment; Rank tests; Respiratory diseases; Respiratory Tract Infections - diagnosis; Respiratory Tract Infections - epidemiology; Retrospective Studies; Rhinovirus; Ribonuclease P; Secondary schools; Sexually transmitted diseases; Specimen Handling - methods; STD; Technicians; Tubes; Underserved populations; United States; Upper respiratory tract samples; Urban areas; Viral infections; Viruses - genetics
• ISSN: 1471-2458; 1471-2458
• DOI: 10.1186/s12889-022-12523-3

Home-based swabbing has not been widely used. The objective of this analysis was to compare respiratory swabs collected by mothers of 7-12-year-olds living in low-income, multilingual communities in the United States with technician collected swabs. Retrospective data analysis of respiratory samples collected at home by mothers compared to technicians. Anterior nasal and throat specimens collected using flocked swabs were combined in dry tubes. Test was done using TaqMan array cards for viral and bacterial pathogens. Cycle threshold (Ct) values of ribonuclease P (RNP) gene were used to assess specimen quality. Ct