TY - JOUR AU - Smith-Jeffcoat, Sarah AU - Koh, Mitsuki AU - Hoffman, Adam AU - Rebolledo, Paulina AU - Schechter, Marcos AU - Miller, Halie AU - Sleweon, Sadia AU - Rossetti, Rebecca AU - Kasinathan, Vyjayanti AU - Shragai, Talya AU - O’Laughlin, Kevin AU - Espinosa, Catherine AU - Khalil, George AU - Adeyemo, AdeSubomi AU - Moorman, Anne AU - Bauman, Brenda AU - Joseph, Kahaliah AU - O’Hegarty, Michelle AU - Kamal, Nazia AU - Atallah, Hany AU - Moore, Brooks AU - Bohannon, Caitlin AU - Bankamp, Bettina AU - Hartloge, Claire AU - Bowen, Michael AU - Paulick, Ashley AU - Gargis, Amy AU - Elkins, Christopher AU - Stewart, Rebekah AU - da Silva, Juliana AU - Biedron, Caitlin AU - Tate, Jacqueline AU - Wang, Yun AU - Kirking, Hannah T1 - Effects of Patient Characteristics on Diagnostic Performance of Self-Collected Samples for SARS-CoV-2 Testing T2 - Emerging Infectious Disease journal PY - 2021 VL - 27 IS - 8 SP - 2081 SN - 1080-6059 AB - We evaluated the performance of self-collected anterior nasal swab (ANS) and saliva samples compared with healthcare worker–collected nasopharyngeal swab specimens used to test for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). We used the same PCR diagnostic panel to test all self-collected and healthcare worker–collected samples from participants at a public hospital in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. Among 1,076 participants, 51.9% were men, 57.1% were >50 years of age, 81.2% were Black (non-Hispanic), and 74.9% reported >1 chronic medical condition. In total, 8.0% tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. Compared with nasopharyngeal swab samples, ANS samples had a sensitivity of 59% and saliva samples a sensitivity of 68%. Among participants tested 3–7 days after symptom onset, ANS samples had a sensitivity of 80% and saliva samples a sensitivity of 85%. Sensitivity varied by specimen type and patient characteristics. These findings can help physicians interpret PCR results for SARS-CoV-2. KW - self-collected KW - saliva KW - anterior nasal KW - SARS-CoV-2 KW - sensitivity KW - respiratory infections KW - severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 KW - 2019 novel coronavirus disease KW - coronavirus disease KW - zoonoses KW - viruses KW - coronaviruses KW - COVID-19 KW - Georgia KW - United States DO - 10.3201/eid2708.210667 UR - https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/27/8/21-0667_article ER - End of Reference