HOLLY BLAKE holly.blake@nottingham.ac.uk
Professor of Behavioural Medicine
HOLLY BLAKE holly.blake@nottingham.ac.uk
Professor of Behavioural Medicine
Jessica Corner
Cecilia Cirelli
Juliet Hassard
Lydia Briggs
JANET DALY janet.daly@nottingham.ac.uk
Professor of Viral Zoonoses
Malcolm Bennett
Joseph Chappell
LUCY FAIRCLOUGH LUCY.FAIRCLOUGH@NOTTINGHAM.AC.UK
Professor of Immunology
C. Patrick McClure
ALEXANDER TARR alex.tarr@nottingham.ac.uk
Associate Professor
PATRICK TIGHE paddy.tighe@nottingham.ac.uk
Professor of Molecular Immunology
Alex Favier
WILLIAM IRVING mrzwi@nottingham.ac.uk
Professor of Virology
JONATHAN BALL jonathan.ball@nottingham.ac.uk
Professor of Molecular Virology
We aimed to explore student and staff perceptions and experiences of a pilot COVID-19 asymptomatic testing service (P-ATS) in a UK university campus setting. This was a mixed-method study comprised of an online survey, and thematic analysis of qualitative data from interviews and focus groups conducted at the end of the 12-week P-ATS programme. Ninety-nine students (84.8% female, 70% first year; 93.9% P-ATS participants) completed an online survey, 41 individuals attended interviews or focus groups, including 31 students (21 first year; 10 final year) and 10 staff. All types of testing and logistics were highly acceptable (virus: swab, saliva; antibody: finger prick) and 94.9% would participate again. Reported adherence to weekly virus testing was high (92.4% completed ≥6 tests; 70.8% submitted all 10 swabs; 89.2% completed ≥1 saliva sample) and 76.9% submitted ≥3 blood samples. Students tested to ‘keep campus safe’, ‘contribute to national efforts to control COVID-19’, and ‘protect others’. 31.3% had high anxiety as measured by the Generalized Anxiety Disorder scale (GAD-7) (27.1% of first year). Students with lower levels of anxiety and greater satisfaction with university communications around P-ATS were more likely to adhere to virus and antibody tests. Increased adherence to testing was associated with higher perceived risk of COVID-19 to self (virus) and others (antibody). Qualitative findings revealed 5 themes and 13 sub-themes: ‘emotional responses to COVID-19’, ‘university life during COVID-19’, ‘influences on testing participation’, ‘testing physical and logistical factors’ and ‘testing effects on mental wellbeing’. Asymptomatic COVID-19 testing (virus/antibodies) is highly acceptable to students and staff in a university campus setting. Clear communications and support for mental wellbeing is likely to be important for testing uptake and adherence. Strategies are needed to facilitate social connections and mitigate the mental health impacts of COVID-19 and self-isolation.
Blake, H., Corner, J., Cirelli, C., Hassard, J., Briggs, L., Daly, J. M., …Ball, J. Perceptions and Experiences of the University of Nottingham Pilot Asymptomatic Testing Service: A Mixed-Methods Study
Working Paper Type | Working Paper |
---|---|
Publicly Available Date | Feb 15, 2022 |
Public URL | https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/7356555 |
Publisher URL | https://www.preprints.org/manuscript/202012.0060/v1 |
Perceptions and experiences of the University of Nottingham pilot asymptomatic testing service: a mixed-methods study
(868 Kb)
PDF
Publisher Licence URL
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Nurses' views on workplace wellbeing programmes
(2016)
Journal Article
School-based educational intervention to improve children’s oral health-related knowledge
(2014)
Journal Article
The inverse forecast effect
(1997)
Journal Article
Factors associated with strain in co-resident spouses of patients following stroke
(2000)
Journal Article
About Repository@Nottingham
Administrator e-mail: discovery-access-systems@nottingham.ac.uk
This application uses the following open-source libraries:
Apache License Version 2.0 (http://www.apache.org/licenses/)
Apache License Version 2.0 (http://www.apache.org/licenses/)
SIL OFL 1.1 (http://scripts.sil.org/OFL)
MIT License (http://opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.html)
CC BY 3.0 ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/)
Powered by Worktribe © 2024
Advanced Search