New study finds school-aged children in U.S. can self-swab

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 26 (Xinhua) -- A new study published Friday on pediatric COVID-19 testing in U.S. schools found that with age-appropriate instructions, school-aged children can successfully use a nasal swab to obtain their own COVID-19 test specimen.

Researchers conducted their study in July and August 2021 at sites in the Atlanta area, enrolling 197 children with symptoms of COVID-19. Prior to self-swabbing, they showed the children a short how-to video designed for a young audience and provided a handout with written instructions and pictures.

The children then proceeded to swab their noses -- four rotations of the swab against the inside of each nostril approximately one centimeter deep. Next, the health care worker used a second swab to collect a sample by swabbing each nostril of the individual children.

All samples were then submitted to a clinical laboratory for PCR analysis.

The self-collected swabs and those collected by a health care worker agreed 97.8 percent of the time for a positive result and 98.1 percent of the time for a negative result, according to the study, published online in JAMA.

The study provides data to support recommendations regarding self-swabbing that can be implemented by schools and in other settings where children undergo COVID-19 testing, said the U.S. National Institutes of Health in a statement.

"Seeing how closely the results line up between the children and trained health care workers is a strong indicator that these age groups are fully capable of swabbing themselves if given proper instruction," said Jesse Waggoner, an assistant professor of infectious diseases with the Emory University School of Medicine and one of the lead authors on the study.