Abstract
Objectives: To determine the diagnostic yield of screening patients for SARS-CoV-2 who were admitted with a diagnosis unrelated to COVID-19 and to identify risk factors for positive tests.
Design: Cohort from the Canadian COVID-19 Emergency Department Rapid Response Network registry.
Setting: 30 acute care hospitals across Canada.
Participants: Patients hospitalised for non-COVID-19-related diagnoses who were tested for SARS-CoV-2 between 1 March and 29 December 2020.
Main outcome: Positive nucleic acid amplification test for SARS-CoV-2.
Outcome measure: Diagnostic yield.
Results: We enrolled 15 690 consecutive eligible adults who were admitted to hospital without clinically suspected COVID-19. Among these patients, 122 tested positive for COVID-19, resulting in a diagnostic yield of 0.8% (95% CI 0.64% to 0.92%). Factors associated with a positive test included presence of fever, being a healthcare worker, having a positive household contact or institutional exposure, and living in an area with higher 7-day average incident COVID-19 cases.
Conclusions: Universal screening of hospitalised patients for COVID-19 across two pandemic waves had a low diagnostic yield and should be informed by individual-level risk assessment in addition to regional COVID-19 prevalence.
Trial registration number: NCT04702945 .
Keywords: COVID-19; Diagnostic microbiology; EPIDEMIOLOGY; Organisation of health services.
【저자키워드】 COVID-19, Epidemiology, Diagnostic microbiology, organisation of health services., 【초록키워드】 SARS-CoV-2, pandemic, hospital, diagnostic, Diagnosis, risk, risk factor, healthcare worker, Prevalence, response, Health services, Fever, Patient, Rapid, network, nucleic acid amplification, Canada, Care, patients, diagnose, Emergency, Contact, COVID-19 cases, Factor, 95% CI, average, Positive test, Department, positive, hospitalised, enrolled, resulting, tested, identify, addition, clinically suspected, determine, hospitalised patient, eligible adult, Universal, 【제목키워드】 SARS-CoV-2, hospital, Patient, Observational cohort study,