Application of pooled testing in estimating the prevalence of COVID-19.

IF 1.6 Q3 HEALTH CARE SCIENCES & SERVICES

Health Services and Outcomes Research Methodology Pub Date : 2022-01-01 Epub Date: 2021-08-07 DOI:10.1007/s10742-021-00258-4

Pritha Guha, Apratim Guha, Tathagata Bandyopadhyay

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引用次数: 3

Abstract

Testing at a mass scale has been widely accepted as an effective way to contain the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 Virus. In the initial stages, the shortage of test kits severely restricted mass-scale testing. Pooled testing was offered as a partial solution to this problem. However, it is a relatively lesser-known fact that pooled testing can also result in significant gains, both in terms of cost savings as well as measurement accuracy, in prevalence estimation surveys. We review here the statistical theory of pooled testing for screening as well as for prevalence estimation. We study the impact of the diagnostic errors, and misspecification of the sensitivity and the specificity on the performances of the pooled as well as individual testing procedures. Our investigation clarifies some of the issues hotly debated in the context of COVID-19 and shows the potential gains for the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) in using a pooled sampling for their upcoming COVID-19 prevalence surveys.

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汇总检验在估计COVID-19流行率中的应用

大规模检测已被广泛接受为遏制SARS-CoV-2病毒传播的有效方法。在最初阶段，测试工具的短缺严重限制了大规模测试。池测试是这个问题的部分解决方案。然而，在流行度估计调查中，集合测试也可以在成本节约和测量准确性方面产生显著的收益，这是一个相对较少为人所知的事实。我们在此回顾用于筛查和患病率估计的汇总检验的统计理论。我们研究了诊断错误的影响，以及灵敏度和特异性的错误说明对池和单独的测试程序的性能。我们的调查澄清了在COVID-19背景下激烈争论的一些问题，并显示了印度医学研究委员会(ICMR)在即将进行的COVID-19患病率调查中使用汇集抽样的潜在收益。

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来源期刊

Health Services and Outcomes Research Methodology HEALTH CARE SCIENCES & SERVICES-

CiteScore

3.40

自引率

6.70%

发文量

期刊介绍： The journal reflects the multidisciplinary nature of the field of health services and outcomes research. It addresses the needs of multiple, interlocking communities, including methodologists in statistics, econometrics, social and behavioral sciences; designers and analysts of health policy and health services research projects; and health care providers and policy makers who need to properly understand and evaluate the results of published research. The journal strives to enhance the level of methodologic rigor in health services and outcomes research and contributes to the development of methodologic standards in the field. In pursuing its main objective, the journal also provides a meeting ground for researchers from a number of traditional disciplines and fosters the development of new quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods by statisticians, econometricians, health services researchers, and methodologists in other fields. Health Services and Outcomes Research Methodology publishes: Research papers on quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods; Case Studies describing applications of quantitative and qualitative methodology in health services and outcomes research; Review Articles synthesizing and popularizing methodologic developments; Tutorials; Articles on computational issues and software reviews; Book reviews; and Notices. Special issues will be devoted to papers presented at important workshops and conferences.