Publication date: Jul 18, 2024

Rural underserved areas facing health disparities have unequal access to health resources. By the third and fourth waves of SARS-CoV-2 infections in the United States, COVID-19 testing had reduced, with more reliance on home testing, and those seeking testing were mostly symptomatic. This study identifies factors associated with COVID-19 testing among individuals who were symptomatic versus asymptomatic seen at a Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics for Underserved Populations phase 2 (RADx-UP2) testing site in West Virginia. Demographic, clinical, and behavioral factors were collected via survey from tested individuals. Logistic regression was used to identify factors associated with the presence of individuals who were symptomatic seen at testing sites. Global tests for spatial autocorrelation were conducted to examine clustering in the proportion of symptomatic to total individuals tested by zip code. Bivariate maps were created to display geographic distributions between higher proportions of tested individuals who were symptomatic and social determinants of health. Among predictors, the presence of a physical (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 1. 85, 95% CI 1. 3-2. 65) or mental (aOR 1. 53, 95% CI 0. 96-2. 48) comorbid condition, challenges related to a place to stay/live (aOR 307. 13, 95% CI 1. 46-10,6372), no community socioeconomic distress (aOR 0. 99, 95% CI 0. 98-1. 00), no challenges in getting needed medicine (aOR 0. 01, 95% CI 0. 00-0. 82) or transportation (aOR 0. 23, 95% CI 0. 05-0. 64), an interaction between community socioeconomic distress and not getting needed medicine (aOR 1. 06, 95% CI 1. 00-1. 13), and having no community socioeconomic distress while not facing challenges related to a place to stay/live (aOR 0. 93, 95% CI 0. 87-0. 99) were statistically associated with an individual being symptomatic at the first test visit. This study addresses critical limitations to the current COVID-19 testing literature, which almost exclusively uses population-level disease screening data to inform public health responses.

Open Access PDF

Semantics

Original Article