Testing for SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Care Home Residents and Staff in English Care Homes: A Service Evaluation

  1. Julii Brainard
  2. Clare Aldus
  3. Emma Smith
  4. Sharon Dunham
  5. Paul Hunter
  6. Nicholas Steel
  7. Paul Everden

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Abstract

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  1. Version published to 10.31389/jltc.99
  2. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2020.08.04.20165928: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board Statementnot detected.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    Software and Algorithms
    SentencesResources
    Analyses were conducted using STATA (StataCorp v. 16).
    STATA
    suggested: (Stata, RRID:SCR_012763)
    StataCorp
    suggested: (Stata, RRID:SCR_012763)

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:
    Strengths and limitations: ECHT were able to rapidly develop and implement early SARS-CoV-2-testing. Early screening of residents and staff after ingress into care homes identified prevalence of truly asymptomatic infections and symptom presentation in residents relatively early in the UK COVID-19 outbreak. Staff results were reported by home (not individual) and therefore numbers of staff tested are estimated. Prevalence of staff infection and the possible relationship between staff prevalence and resident prevalence could be explored. The potential value of better information on staff working practices (knowing who works in other settings) was evidenced. In addition, resident estimates are based on bed number. Bed capacity is close to but not consistently at 100%. Many residents may not be tested for ethical or clinical reasons. Comparison with existing literature: The Vivaldi study, a telephone survey of care home managers exploring whole-home testing across 9,081 care homes in England (26 May to 19 June 2020), found 20% of residents and 7% staff SARS-CoV-2-positive in homes where infection was reported. 22 Our findings for residents in screened homes are broadly consistent with Vivaldi (17.2% versus 20%). However, this study identified higher prevalence of infection amongst staff compared to Vivaldi (14.4 versus 7%). This may be because Vivaldi was based on care home manager report and this study on screening. Graham et al.; identified 40% SARS-CoV-2-infection amongst res...

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.

    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    About SciScore

    SciScore is an automated tool that is designed to assist expert reviewers by finding and presenting formulaic information scattered throughout a paper in a standard, easy to digest format. SciScore checks for the presence and correctness of RRIDs (research resource identifiers), and for rigor criteria such as sex and investigator blinding. For details on the theoretical underpinning of rigor criteria and the tools shown here, including references cited, please follow this link.

  3. Version published to 10.1101/2020.08.04.20165928v2 on medRxiv
  4. Version published to 10.1101/2020.08.04.20165928v1 on medRxiv