Most common reasons why people don’t get COVID-19 tests

By Georgia Lambert via SWNS

The most common reasons for not undergoing a COVID-19 test is that people don't know where to go to get one, according to a study involving more than four million people.

Those who only have mild symptoms are also less likely to get tested for the virus, according to the research.

By using data from over four million adults in the United Kingdom, researchers from King's College London and Boston Children's Hospital found that there are a number of different reasons why people don't rush to get tested.

Testing has been a crucial component of the public health response, even as countries continue to roll out vaccination campaigns.

In the UK, free PCR COVID-19 tests are offered to people who have a high temperature, a new, continuous cough, or a change in their sense of smell and taste.

However, more than a quarter of people in the UK who are reporting these symptoms, don't get tested.

The new study, which was led by Dr. Christina Astley from the Boston Children's Hospital, used data from 4.3 million people who enrolled themselves on the UK Zoe COVID-19 Symptom Study, to use an app to report symptoms and test results.

Dr. Astley and her team then sent follow-up surveys at the end of 2020 to nearly 5,000 people who reported symptoms but no test results.

They then studied more than 700,000 responses, which were received between April 2020 and February 2021, from UK participants of the University of Maryland's Global COVID-19 Trends and Impact Survey (UMD-CTIS), an ongoing survey that is partially carried out on Facebook.

The data showed the researchers that the proportion of Zoe participants reporting testing among those reporting symptoms, had increased over time - from less than 20 percent in April 2020, to more than 70 percent in January 2021.

The odds of a symptomatic person, not testing, were higher for those with just one symptom compared to more symptoms.

According to the survey, a staggering 40.4 percent of respondents couldn't even name all three of the test-qualifying symptoms, and the correct identification decreased for every decade of age.

Amongst the symptomatic respondents who wanted to test but did not have access to a test, not knowing where to go was the most cited reason why they didn't go ahead with it.

This factor increased with each decade older and in people who had spent less time in education.

In light of these findings, the authors explained that greater efforts and improved messaging are needed to educate the UK public about testing recommendations to make them more of an accessible option.

The findings, they said, support the need for targeted messaging to at-risk demographic groups, and a bigger emphasis that even individuals with mild or transient symptoms may have COVID-19 and should get tested.

The authors added: “Knowing when and where to get a test is crucial to curbing COVID-19 transmission, yet one in four people with the UK test-qualifying symptoms of fever, cough, or loss of smell did not get tested.

"Over a third of these individuals did not recognize the three symptoms that would qualify them for a test, and about a third of those who wanted testing did not know where to go, indicating that more effective education is needed to close the testing gap.

"These findings have international public health implications, too. Test uptake in the UK might be relatively high compared to other regions, given it has free tests, clear and consistent symptom criteria, and a national booking infrastructure.

"This suggests even greater efforts may need to be made to overcome knowledge barriers in countries with more fragmented testing infrastructure or more nuanced testing criteria.”

The study was published in PLOS Global Public Health, the open-access journal.