Journal article
Perceptions on undertaking regular asymptomatic self-testing for COVID-19 using lateral flow tests: a qualitative study of university students and staff
- Abstract:
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Objectives: Successful implementation of asymptomatic testing programmes using lateral flow tests (LFTs) depends on several factors, including feasibility, acceptability and how people act on test results. We aimed to examine experiences of university students and staff of regular asymptomatic self-testing using LFTs, and their subsequent behaviours.
Design and setting: A qualitative study using semistructured remote interviews and qualitative survey responses, which were analysed thematically.
Participants: People who were participating in weekly testing feasibility study, between October 2020 and January 2021, at the University of Oxford.
Results: We interviewed 18 and surveyed 214 participants. Participants were motivated to regularly self-test as they wanted to know whether or not they were infected with SARS-CoV-2. Most reported that a negative test result did not change their behaviour, but it did provide them with reassurance to engage with permitted activities. In contrast, some participants reported making decisions about visiting other people because they felt reassured by a negative test result. Participants valued the training but some still doubted their ability to carry out the test. Participants were concerned about safety of attending test sites with lots of people and reported home testing was most convenient.
Conclusions: Clear messages highlighting the benefits of regular testing for family, friends and society in identifying asymptomatic cases are needed. This should be coupled with transparent communication about the accuracy of LFTs and how to act on either a positive or negative result. Concerns about safety, convenience of testing and ability to do tests need to be addressed to ensure successful scaling up of asymptomatic testing.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
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(Preview, Version of record, 419.7KB, Terms of use)
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- Publisher copy:
- 10.1136/bmjopen-2021-053850
Authors
- Publisher:
- BMJ Publishing Group
- Journal:
- BMJ Open More from this journal
- Volume:
- 11
- Issue:
- 9
- Article number:
- e053850
- Publication date:
- 2021-03-28
- Acceptance date:
- 2021-07-30
- DOI:
- EISSN:
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2044-6055
- Language:
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English
- Keywords:
- Pubs id:
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1191703
- Local pid:
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pubs:1191703
- Deposit date:
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2021-09-08
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- Wanat et al.
- Copyright date:
- 2021
- Rights statement:
- © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2021. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ. This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.
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