Publicação
The rise and fall of SARS-CoV-2 rapid antigen self-tests at primary care level: a Portuguese case-study
| datacite.subject.fos | Ciências Médicas::Ciências da Saúde | |
| datacite.subject.sdg | 03:Saúde de Qualidade | |
| dc.contributor.author | Santos, João Almeida | |
| dc.contributor.author | Gomez, Verónica | |
| dc.contributor.author | Rodrigues, Ana Paula | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2026-03-04T15:16:43Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2026-03-04T15:16:43Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2025-09 | |
| dc.description | Abstract publicado em: Gac Sanit. 2025;39(S2):329. | |
| dc.description.abstract | Background/Aim: SARS-CoV-2 rapid antigen self-tests are available, allowing individuals to diagnose a SARS-CoV-2 infection prior to a consultation with a healthcare professional. Self-testing may affect the general practitioner (GP) consultation behaviour and represent a selection bias in primary care vaccine effectiveness (VE) studies. The aim of this study was to describe self-testing patterns and differences between self-testers and non-self-testers in primary care in Portugal in the 2022-23, 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons. Methods: Data (September 2022-March 2025) from a primary care VE study (VEBIS Primary Care study) was used, and were included patients aged 60+ with Acute Respiratory Infection (ARI) consulting a GP. Data on demographics, vaccination, self-test use, laboratory results (RT-PCR positive for SARS-CoV-2 - Cases; Negative - Controls) and clinical status was collected. Results: Of the 382 patients included (47 cases, 335 controls), 67 (40%), 53 (43%) and 10 (11%) performed a self-test in the 2022-23, 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons, respectively. Patients that self-tested were more likely to be female (72%, 57%, and 90%) and aged 60–79yo (94%, 62%, 70%) across all seasons. Self-tests positivity increased across the seasons (6%, 25%, 80%). Those who self-tested had a lower SARS-CoV-2 positivity rate in 2022-23 (10% vs. 14%) but higher in 2023-24 (23% vs. 14%) and 2024-25 (10% vs. 4%) season than those that not self-tested. Similarly, a lower prevalence of chronic conditions (64% vs. 79%) was observed in 2022-23 but higher in 2023-24 (85% vs. 84%) and 2024-25 (100% vs. 82%) seasons. Seasonal COVID-19 vaccination rate was lower in 2022-23 (39% vs. 53%) and 2023-24 (30% vs. 33%) but higher in 2024-25 (30% vs. 26%) season for those who self-tested. In the 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons, the increase and decrease of self-testing overlapped with the months with the highest prevalence of ARI cases. In the 2024-25 season, self-testing was lower and did not overlap with trends of ARI cases. Conclusions: Results suggest that the potential negative association between vaccination and self-testing (unvaccinated patients were more likely to self-test) practically disappeared in the following seasons. In the present season, the use of self-tests decreased and their use does not reflect the notification of ARI cases, that is, in periods with a greater number of cases there is no increase in self-testing. However, the small sample size limited further analysis, highlighting the need for larger studies with vaccine effectiveness estimates stratified by self-testing. | eng |
| dc.description.sponsorship | VEBIS Lot5 (ECDC/2021/019) | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/10400.18/11134 | |
| dc.language.iso | eng | |
| dc.peerreviewed | yes | |
| dc.relation.hasversion | https://www.gacetasanitaria.org/en-congresos-xliii-reunion-anual-sociedad-espanola-177-sesion-co-infeccion-respiratoria-aguda-8651-the-rise-and-fall-of-106700-pdf | |
| dc.relation.ispartofseries | S2 | |
| dc.rights.uri | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ | |
| dc.subject | Primary Care | |
| dc.subject | SARS-CoV-2 | |
| dc.subject | Acute Respiratory Infection (ARI) | |
| dc.subject | Vaccine Effectiveness | |
| dc.subject | Cuidados de Saúde | |
| dc.subject | Observação em Saúde e Vigilância | |
| dc.subject | Infecções Respiratórias | |
| dc.title | The rise and fall of SARS-CoV-2 rapid antigen self-tests at primary care level: a Portuguese case-study | eng |
| dc.type | conference object | |
| dspace.entity.type | Publication | |
| oaire.citation.conferencePlace | Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Espanha | |
| oaire.citation.title | XX Congress of the Portuguese Epidemiology Association (APE) / XLIII Annual Meeting of the Spanish Society of Epidemiology (SEE), 2–5 September 2025 | |
| oaire.version | http://purl.org/coar/version/c_970fb48d4fbd8a85 |