At-home COVID-19 test users do not always follow quarantine guidelines, study finds

At-home COVID-19 test users do not always follow quarantine guidelines, study finds
FlowFlex COVID-19 Antigen Home Test kits have been available online for purchase in New York City since January 18, but not everyone who tests at home follows quarantine guidance, according to a new study. Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo

Jan. 31 (UPI) — People who use at-home COVID-19 self-test kits after experiencing symptoms may not quarantine after a negative result, a study published Monday by JAMA Internal Medicine found.

In doing so, they may expose themselves and others, perhaps unintentionally to unnecessary risk due to potential spread of the virus, researchers said.

Of the at-home test users surveyed, 95% of those who had a positive result appropriately quarantined, the data showed.

However, up to one-third of at-home test-takers who had a negative result after experiencing symptoms of virus or being exposed to someone with it failed to quarantine as recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to the researchers.

Those given specially developed instructions designed to explain the CDC’s recommendations “clearly” were more likely to follow them than test-takers who received only the Food and Drug Administration-approved literature, they said.

“We found that a substantial proportion of people said they would not self-quarantine despite typical symptoms and/or close contact with COVID-infected individuals if their test was negative,” study co-author Dr. Steven Woloshin told UPI in an email.

“This shows how fundamentally important it is to design and test home-kit instructions to ensure that they help people interpret their results and respond appropriately,” said Woloshin, co-director of the Center for Medicine and Media at The Dartmouth Institute at Dartmouth University.

More than 60 at-home COVID-19 test kits have been approved for use in the United States, according to the FDA.

The agency requires all of them to include detailed instructions on how to use them and how to interpret — and act on — the results.

In the event of a negative test result, the CDC recommends that people who experience COVID-19 symptoms or who have been exposed to someone with the virus where a tight-fitting mask if they choose to leave their homes.

However, at the time this study was conducted, those with symptoms or exposure were advised to quarantine even after a negative test.

Woloshin and his colleagues surveyed more than 300 test takers on their compliance with the CDC recommendations, with 116 of them receiving only the FDA test instructions and 110 given both the FDA literature as well as guidelines developed by the researchers.

The rest of the participants received no instructions on how to use the tests, the researchers said.

Although most of the participants followed the CDC quarantine recommendations following a positive test, those who had a negative result were less likely to do so, even after experiencing symptoms or being exposed to someone with the virus, according to the researchers.

However, even that 5% of those who tested positive did not quarantine is cause for concern, they said.

“We know some people choose not to quarantine despite a positive test,” Woloshin said.

“This is unfortunate because they are likely infectious and can transmit the virus to others,” he said.

Of the participants given only the FDA-approved instructions, 33% failed to appropriately quarantine after a negative result, while 24% of those who received no test guidelines did so, the data showed.

Among participants given the instructions developed specifically for the study, 14% failed to properly quarantine, the researchers said.

“The results of this study show how important it is ensure that people know how to interpret and act on home test kit results,” Woloshin told UPI.

“The government should do what it can to maximize the chance that people use and interpret tests appropriately — that means ensuring instructions are properly designed and tested and kept up to date as conditions change,” he said.