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Diagnostic Performance of Self-Collected Respiratory Swabs for SARS-CoV-2 and Influenza Virus in Community-Dwelling
Xinyi Li1, Samuel M S Cheng1, Yuyun Chen1
1WHO Collaborating Centre for Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Control, School of Public Health, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China.
Background:
Reassurance over the quality of self-collected swabs could provide additional evidence to support the self-collection of respiratory specimens as a valid and efficient method in large-scale cohort studies.
Methods:
This study assessed the diagnostic performance of self-collected pooled nasal and throat swabs compared to staff-collected swabs for detecting SARS-CoV-2 and influenza virus by RT-PCR in a cohort of older adults (aged 69-87 years) from March to October 2024.
Results:
Self-collected swabs demonstrated high sensitivity (95.2% for SARS-CoV-2, 100% for influenza A) and specificity (99.2% and 100%, respectively) against staff-collected swabs. Cycle threshold values showed no statistically significant differences and strong correlations between the two methods.
Conclusions:
These findings suggest self-collected swabs are a reliable alternative for community-based respiratory viruses surveillance in older adults, supporting their use in large-scale studies.
