title: Pilot study of participant-collected nasal swabs for acute respiratory infections in a low-income, urban population.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess the feasibility and validity of unsupervised participant-collected nasal swabs to detect respiratory pathogens in a low-income, urban minority population.
  
  
  METHODS
  This project was conducted as part of an ongoing community-based surveillance study in New York City to identify viral etiologies of acute respiratory infection. In January 2014, following sample collection by trained research assistants, participants with acute respiratory infection from 30 households subsequently collected and returned a self-collected/parent-collected nasal swab via mail. Self/parental swabs corresponding with positive reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction primary research samples were analyzed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Nearly all (96.8%, n=30/31) households agreed to participate; 100% reported returning the sample and 29 were received (median time: 8 days). Most (18; 62.1%) of the primary research samples were positive. For eight influenza-positive research samples, seven (87.5%) self-swabs were also positive. For ten other respiratory pathogen-positive research samples, eight (80.0%) self-swabs were positive. Sensitivity of self-swabs for any respiratory pathogen was 83.3% and 87.5% for influenza, and specificity for both was 100%. There was no relationship between level of education and concordance of results between positive research samples and their matching participant swab.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In this pilot study, self-swabbing was feasible and valid in a low-income, urban minority population.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Celibell Y
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Vargas
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Liqun
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Yaritza
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Castellanos de Belliard
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Morban
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Hilbania
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Diaz
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA; Department of Epidemiology, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Elaine L
authors.initials: EL
authors.lastname: Larson
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Philip
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: LaRussa
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA; Department of Infection Prevention and Control, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Lisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Saiman
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA; Department of Population and Family Health, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA; NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Melissa S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Stockwell
keywords: community-based; influenza; influenza-like illness; self-swab; upper respiratory infection