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Free PoC Testing for SARS-CoV-2 in Germany: Factors Expanding Access to Various Communities in a Medium-Sized City

During the third wave of the COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) pandemic in Germany, free SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2) point-of-care (PoC) antigen tests were offered to citizens at least once a week to prevent spreading by asymptomatic infected individuals. This stud...

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Autores principales: Witte, Anna Kristina, Grosch, Janina, Conrady, Beate, Schomakers, Lena, Grohmann, Marcus
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9027734/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35457587
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19084721
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author Witte, Anna Kristina
Grosch, Janina
Conrady, Beate
Schomakers, Lena
Grohmann, Marcus
author_facet Witte, Anna Kristina
Grosch, Janina
Conrady, Beate
Schomakers, Lena
Grohmann, Marcus
author_sort Witte, Anna Kristina
collection PubMed
description During the third wave of the COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) pandemic in Germany, free SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2) point-of-care (PoC) antigen tests were offered to citizens at least once a week to prevent spreading by asymptomatic infected individuals. This study investigated user groups, timing, frequency, and test center locations in a typical medium-sized European city. We analyzed 27,369 pseudonymized datasets from eight centers over 12 weeks. Those were evaluated according to age, residence, appointment, and potential repeated test occurrence. The centers were visited by different groups; some centers were preferred by a predominantly younger demographic, whereas a mobile option attracted an older age group by reaching districts with few other testing possibilities. Elderly individuals were tested more spontaneously than younger individuals, and a test center at a ‘park and ride’ had more spontaneous visitors from outside of the city compared to other test locations. Only a small proportion of less than 4% came for testing more than five times. To preferably address many people for voluntary antigen testing, it is crucial to offer different test opportunities accounting for individual behavioral patterns, despite this requiring more complex and costly design than conventional forms.
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spelling pubmed-90277342022-04-23 Free PoC Testing for SARS-CoV-2 in Germany: Factors Expanding Access to Various Communities in a Medium-Sized City Witte, Anna Kristina Grosch, Janina Conrady, Beate Schomakers, Lena Grohmann, Marcus Int J Environ Res Public Health Article During the third wave of the COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) pandemic in Germany, free SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2) point-of-care (PoC) antigen tests were offered to citizens at least once a week to prevent spreading by asymptomatic infected individuals. This study investigated user groups, timing, frequency, and test center locations in a typical medium-sized European city. We analyzed 27,369 pseudonymized datasets from eight centers over 12 weeks. Those were evaluated according to age, residence, appointment, and potential repeated test occurrence. The centers were visited by different groups; some centers were preferred by a predominantly younger demographic, whereas a mobile option attracted an older age group by reaching districts with few other testing possibilities. Elderly individuals were tested more spontaneously than younger individuals, and a test center at a ‘park and ride’ had more spontaneous visitors from outside of the city compared to other test locations. Only a small proportion of less than 4% came for testing more than five times. To preferably address many people for voluntary antigen testing, it is crucial to offer different test opportunities accounting for individual behavioral patterns, despite this requiring more complex and costly design than conventional forms. MDPI 2022-04-13 /pmc/articles/PMC9027734/ /pubmed/35457587 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19084721 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Witte, Anna Kristina
Grosch, Janina
Conrady, Beate
Schomakers, Lena
Grohmann, Marcus
Free PoC Testing for SARS-CoV-2 in Germany: Factors Expanding Access to Various Communities in a Medium-Sized City
title Free PoC Testing for SARS-CoV-2 in Germany: Factors Expanding Access to Various Communities in a Medium-Sized City
title_full Free PoC Testing for SARS-CoV-2 in Germany: Factors Expanding Access to Various Communities in a Medium-Sized City
title_fullStr Free PoC Testing for SARS-CoV-2 in Germany: Factors Expanding Access to Various Communities in a Medium-Sized City
title_full_unstemmed Free PoC Testing for SARS-CoV-2 in Germany: Factors Expanding Access to Various Communities in a Medium-Sized City
title_short Free PoC Testing for SARS-CoV-2 in Germany: Factors Expanding Access to Various Communities in a Medium-Sized City
title_sort free poc testing for sars-cov-2 in germany: factors expanding access to various communities in a medium-sized city
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9027734/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35457587
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19084721
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