Alliance for Pandemic Preparedness

December 7, 2020

How Do the Public Interpret COVID-19 Swab Test Results Comparing the Impact of Official Information about Results and Reliability Used in the UK US and New Zealand a Randomised Controlled Trial

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[Pre-print, not peer-reviewed] A randomized controlled trial with 1744 UK participants evaluated test interpretation and guidance from public health websites by giving hypothetical test results and randomizing participants to either receive no more information or information on the interpretation of test results from a public health website from the UK, US, or New Zealand. Most participants who were told the test was positive thought patients should self-isolate (mean 86 on a 0-100 scale), as did those who saw a negative result (mean 51). The proportion of participants who thought symptomatic patients with negative results should not self-isolate was highest among those reading UK websites (17.4%) and lowest among those using websites in New Zealand (3.8%) and the US (5.1%).

Recchia et al. (Dec 4, 2020). How Do the Public Interpret COVID-19 Swab Test Results Comparing the Impact of Official Information about Results and Reliability Used in the UK US and New Zealand a Randomised Controlled Trial. Pre-print downloaded Dec 6 from   https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.12.04.20243840