Pilot study of participant-collected nasal swabs for acute respiratory infections in a low-income, urban population

Vargas, Celibell Y; Wang, Liqun; Castellanos de Belliard, Yaritza; Morban, Maria; Diaz, Hilbania; Larson, Elaine L; LaRussa, Philip; Saiman, Lisa; Stockwell, Melissa S

Of the 29 swabs received, 18 (62.1%, from seven adults and eleven children) had a corresponding research swab that was positive for a respiratory pathogen. Seven (87.5%) corresponding self-swabs were concordant with the positive research swabs for influenza, and eight (80.0%) corresponding self-swabs were concordant with the research swab for noninfluenza pathogens ( Table 2 ). The kappa statistic between research and self-swab was 0.84. There were no differences in demographic variables, including education level or days between drop-off and receipt of swabs, among participants whose self-and research-staff obtained swabs correlated versus those whose swabs did not correlate (Table 1) . Of the self-swab samples that had a corresponding positive research swab, the longest time a self-swab sample took to arrive was 17 days; this swab was positive for respiratory syncytial