%0 Journal Article
%@ 2561-326X
%I JMIR Publications
%V 7
%N 
%P e32848
%T Effectiveness of Self-Collected, Ambient Temperature–Preserved Nasal Swabs Compared to Samples Collected by Trained Staff for Genotyping of Respiratory Viruses by Shotgun RNA Sequencing: Comparative Study
%A Soto,Raymond
%A Paul,Litty
%A Porucznik,Christina A
%A Xie,Heng
%A Stinnett,Rita Czako
%A Briggs,Benjamin
%A Biggerstaff,Matthew
%A Stanford,Joseph
%A Schlaberg,Robert
%+ Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, University of Utah, 375 Chipeta Way #A, Salt Lake City, UT, 84108, United States, 1 801 581 7498, joseph.stanford@utah.edu
%K genotyping
%K self-collected nasal swabs
%K RNA sequencing
%K respiratory virus surveillance
%K surveillance
%K respiratory virus
%K influenza virus
%K pandemic
%K preparedness
%K testing capacity
%K self-test
%K viral genome analysis
%K swabs
%K barriers
%K early detection
%K nasal swab
%K temperature
%K public health
%K specimen
%K collection
%K diagnosis
%K laboratory
%K respiratory
%K virus
%K COVID-19
%D 2023
%7 24.11.2023
%9 Original Paper
%J JMIR Form Res
%G English
%X Background: The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has underscored the need for field specimen collection and transport to diagnostic and public health laboratories. Self-collected nasal swabs transported without dependency on a cold chain have the potential to remove critical barriers to testing, expand testing capacity, and reduce opportunities for exposure of health professionals in the context of a pandemic. Objective: We compared nasal swab collection by study participants from themselves and their children at home to collection by trained research staff. Methods: Each adult participant collected 1 nasal swab, sampling both nares with the single swab, after which they collected 1 nasal swab from 1 child. After all the participant samples were collected for the household, the research staff member collected a separate single duplicate sample from each individual. Immediately after the sample collection, the adult participants completed a questionnaire about the acceptability of the sampling procedures. Swabs were placed in temperature-stable preservative and respiratory viruses were detected by shotgun RNA sequencing, enabling viral genome analysis. Results: In total, 21 households participated in the study, each with 1 adult and 1 child, yielding 42 individuals with paired samples. Study participants reported that self-collection was acceptable. Agreement between identified respiratory viruses in both swabs by RNA sequencing demonstrated that adequate collection technique was achieved by brief instructions. Conclusions: Our results support the feasibility of a scalable and convenient means for the identification of respiratory viruses and implementation in pandemic preparedness for novel respiratory pathogens. 
%M 37999952
%R 10.2196/32848
%U https://formative.jmir.org/2023/1/e32848
%U https://doi.org/10.2196/32848
%U http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37999952