Throat swabs in children with respiratory tract infection: associations with clinical presentation and potential targets for point-of-care testing

Thornton, Hannah V; Hay, Alastair D; Redmond, Niamh M; Turnbull, Sophie L; Christensen, Hannah; Peters, Tim J; Leeming, John P; Lovering, Andrew; Vipond, Barry; Muir, Peter; Blair, Peter S

Of all demographic characteristics and symptoms and signs collected (full list in Supplementary Data Table S1), 14 were associated with the detection of ≥1 type of bacterium in univariable analysis (Supplementary Data Table S2 ). However, in multivariable analysis, only one variable remained associated with the detection of bacteria: low energy during the illness ( Table 2) . The model showed poor discrimination, with AUROC of 0.54 [95% CI 0.52-0.56]. Bacterial detection was not associated with clinician-reported diagnosis of bacterial infection: in 119 children for whom clinicians reported specific suspicion of bacterial cause, 54% had RTI-related bacteria detected from their throat swab, versus 60% with no bacterial cause specified (P = 0.19).