Abstract

There is substantial interest in using presenting symptoms to prioritize testing for COVID-19 and establish symptom-based surveillance. However, little is currently known about the specificity of COVID-19 symptoms. To assess the feasibility of symptom-based screening for COVID-19, we used data from tests for common respiratory viruses and SARS-CoV-2 in our health system to measure the ability to correctly classify virus test results based on presenting symptoms. Based on these results, symptom-based screening may not be an effective strategy to identify individuals who should be tested for SARS-CoV-2 infection or to obtain a leading indicator of new COVID-19 cases.

Details

Title
Estimating the efficacy of symptom-based screening for COVID-19
Author
Callahan, Alison 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Steinberg, Ethan 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Fries, Jason A 1 ; Gombar Saurabh 2   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Patel Birju 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Corbin, Conor K 1 ; Shah, Nigam H 1 

1  Stanford University, Center for Biomedical Informatics Research, School of Medicine, Stanford, USA (GRID:grid.168010.e) (ISNI:0000000419368956) 
2  Stanford University, Department of Pathology, School of Medicine, Stanford, USA (GRID:grid.168010.e) (ISNI:0000000419368956) 
Publication year
2020
Publication date
Dec 2020
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
e-ISSN
23986352
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41746-020-0300-0
ProQuest document ID
2528863215
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2020. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.