Cargando…

A Test-Negative Design with Additional Population Controls Can Be Used to Rapidly Study Causes of the SARS-CoV-2 Epidemic

Testing of symptomatic persons for infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 is occurring worldwide. We propose two types of case–control studies that can be carried out jointly in test settings for symptomatic persons. The first, the test-negative case–control design (TND) is t...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Vandenbroucke, Jan P., Brickley, Elizabeth B., Vandenbroucke-Grauls, Christina M.J.E., Pearce, Neil
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7523580/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32841988
http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/EDE.0000000000001251
_version_ 1783588405853028352
author Vandenbroucke, Jan P.
Brickley, Elizabeth B.
Vandenbroucke-Grauls, Christina M.J.E.
Pearce, Neil
author_facet Vandenbroucke, Jan P.
Brickley, Elizabeth B.
Vandenbroucke-Grauls, Christina M.J.E.
Pearce, Neil
author_sort Vandenbroucke, Jan P.
collection PubMed
description Testing of symptomatic persons for infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 is occurring worldwide. We propose two types of case–control studies that can be carried out jointly in test settings for symptomatic persons. The first, the test-negative case–control design (TND) is the easiest to implement; it only requires collecting information about potential risk factors for Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) from the tested symptomatic persons. The second, standard case–control studies with population controls, requires the collection of data on one or more population controls for each person who is tested in the test facilities, so that test-positives and test-negatives can each be compared with population controls. The TND will detect differences in risk factors between symptomatic persons who have COVID-19 (test-positives) and those who have other respiratory infections (test-negatives). However, risk factors with effect sizes of equal magnitude for both COVID-19 and other respiratory infections will not be identified by the TND. Therefore, we discuss how to add population controls to compare with the test-positives and the test-negatives, yielding two additional case–control studies. We describe two options for population control groups: one composed of accompanying persons to the test facilities, the other drawn from existing country-wide healthcare databases. We also describe other possibilities for population controls. Combining the TND with population controls yields a triangulation approach that distinguishes between exposures that are risk factors for both COVID-19 and other respiratory infections, and exposures that are risk factors for just COVID-19. This combined design can be applied to future epidemics, but also to study causes of nonepidemic disease.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-7523580
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2020
publisher Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-75235802020-10-14 A Test-Negative Design with Additional Population Controls Can Be Used to Rapidly Study Causes of the SARS-CoV-2 Epidemic Vandenbroucke, Jan P. Brickley, Elizabeth B. Vandenbroucke-Grauls, Christina M.J.E. Pearce, Neil Epidemiology Infectious Diseases Testing of symptomatic persons for infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 is occurring worldwide. We propose two types of case–control studies that can be carried out jointly in test settings for symptomatic persons. The first, the test-negative case–control design (TND) is the easiest to implement; it only requires collecting information about potential risk factors for Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) from the tested symptomatic persons. The second, standard case–control studies with population controls, requires the collection of data on one or more population controls for each person who is tested in the test facilities, so that test-positives and test-negatives can each be compared with population controls. The TND will detect differences in risk factors between symptomatic persons who have COVID-19 (test-positives) and those who have other respiratory infections (test-negatives). However, risk factors with effect sizes of equal magnitude for both COVID-19 and other respiratory infections will not be identified by the TND. Therefore, we discuss how to add population controls to compare with the test-positives and the test-negatives, yielding two additional case–control studies. We describe two options for population control groups: one composed of accompanying persons to the test facilities, the other drawn from existing country-wide healthcare databases. We also describe other possibilities for population controls. Combining the TND with population controls yields a triangulation approach that distinguishes between exposures that are risk factors for both COVID-19 and other respiratory infections, and exposures that are risk factors for just COVID-19. This combined design can be applied to future epidemics, but also to study causes of nonepidemic disease. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins 2020-08-06 2020-11 /pmc/articles/PMC7523580/ /pubmed/32841988 http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/EDE.0000000000001251 Text en Copyright © 2020 The Author(s). Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives License 4.0 (CCBY-NC-ND) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) , where it is permissible to download and share the work provided it is properly cited. The work cannot be changed in any way or used commercially without permission from the journal.
spellingShingle Infectious Diseases
Vandenbroucke, Jan P.
Brickley, Elizabeth B.
Vandenbroucke-Grauls, Christina M.J.E.
Pearce, Neil
A Test-Negative Design with Additional Population Controls Can Be Used to Rapidly Study Causes of the SARS-CoV-2 Epidemic
title A Test-Negative Design with Additional Population Controls Can Be Used to Rapidly Study Causes of the SARS-CoV-2 Epidemic
title_full A Test-Negative Design with Additional Population Controls Can Be Used to Rapidly Study Causes of the SARS-CoV-2 Epidemic
title_fullStr A Test-Negative Design with Additional Population Controls Can Be Used to Rapidly Study Causes of the SARS-CoV-2 Epidemic
title_full_unstemmed A Test-Negative Design with Additional Population Controls Can Be Used to Rapidly Study Causes of the SARS-CoV-2 Epidemic
title_short A Test-Negative Design with Additional Population Controls Can Be Used to Rapidly Study Causes of the SARS-CoV-2 Epidemic
title_sort test-negative design with additional population controls can be used to rapidly study causes of the sars-cov-2 epidemic
topic Infectious Diseases
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7523580/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32841988
http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/EDE.0000000000001251
work_keys_str_mv AT vandenbrouckejanp atestnegativedesignwithadditionalpopulationcontrolscanbeusedtorapidlystudycausesofthesarscov2epidemic
AT brickleyelizabethb atestnegativedesignwithadditionalpopulationcontrolscanbeusedtorapidlystudycausesofthesarscov2epidemic
AT vandenbrouckegraulschristinamje atestnegativedesignwithadditionalpopulationcontrolscanbeusedtorapidlystudycausesofthesarscov2epidemic
AT pearceneil atestnegativedesignwithadditionalpopulationcontrolscanbeusedtorapidlystudycausesofthesarscov2epidemic
AT vandenbrouckejanp testnegativedesignwithadditionalpopulationcontrolscanbeusedtorapidlystudycausesofthesarscov2epidemic
AT brickleyelizabethb testnegativedesignwithadditionalpopulationcontrolscanbeusedtorapidlystudycausesofthesarscov2epidemic
AT vandenbrouckegraulschristinamje testnegativedesignwithadditionalpopulationcontrolscanbeusedtorapidlystudycausesofthesarscov2epidemic
AT pearceneil testnegativedesignwithadditionalpopulationcontrolscanbeusedtorapidlystudycausesofthesarscov2epidemic