Research recently suggested, clearer insight is needed into the social factors influencing participation rates in testing programs for COVID-19.
Mirage News reported that University of Edinburgh experts who finished an extensive review of the COVID-19-related study conducted by social scientists discovered it to be limited in depth and scope.
Discovering what people know about COVID-19 testing and the manner is influencing attitudes, as well as behaviors, is essential if programs are to be effective worldwide, said the researchers.
A team of researchers from the University's School of Social and Political Science and Usher Institute reviewed more than 40 studies from all over the world to develop their conclusions.
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A Covid-19 testing site stands along a street in the Brooklyn borough of New York City.
Review Findings
The researchers' review exhibited that people are generally accepting of COVID-19 testing technologies. More so, they are primarily motivated to use them by a sense of care and social commonality for others.
Substantial barriers to people who undertake testing include their doubt about eligibility, how to access testing, and struggle in interpreting COVID symptoms, study authors discovered.
When it comes to logistical issues, a similar Medical Xpress report said, which include transport to, and from test sites, the discomfort of extracting samples, about the effects of a positive test result were other key concerns.
Researchers explained that the findings of the review have suggested that testing needs to be understood as a social process and not only as a medical process.
Challenges with Contact Tracing and Self-Isolation
Results of the review and research are inseparable from the practical challenges linked to contact tracing and self-isolation, not to mention, are affected by the everyday routines of people and their relationships and livelihood.
Researches have advised greater insight into how people's social, economic, and political susceptibility can affect participation.
More studies that monitor the long-term engagement of people with testing programs instead of isolated research would be beneficial, said the research team.
Greater application of qualitative studies, which include interviews with patients and focus groups, would help develop a clearer insight as well of the efficacy of the program.
Testing Programs
The researchers also said that more studies are needed in low- and middle-income nations where testing infrastructure was already under-resourced before the pandemic.
The research was performed by members of the flagship TestEd research program of the University of Edinburgh. It was also financially backed by the Medical Research Council and the European Research Council.
According to the University's School of Social and Political Science's Dr. Alice Street, testing programs on responses made voluntarily, if they will be successful. Understanding people's thought processes are thus key to designing effective COVID-19 testing all over the world.
Why People Hesitate to Get Tested for COVID-19
In a 2020 HuffPost report, it was specified that according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, over 217 million COVID-19 tests had been carried out in the United States that year.
At the time of the report, demand for COVID testing had gotten so high that laboratories and testing sites reported long lines and major backlogs.
At the same time, though, many people were declining to get themselves tested for the virus, even in cases when they were aware they had been exposed.
In an issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, Rita Rubin wrote, avoidance of COVID-19 test appears to be a worsening problem, "at least anecdotally."
She added, a lot of people dismissing the need to get tested feel the same way about mask-wearing, partly due to the fact that they think no one has the right "to tell them to do either."
Every person may have reasons for not wanting to get tested, although there are some common explanations for such a phenomenon.
Related information on COVID-19 testing is shown on the World Health Organization's YouTube video below:
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Check out more news and information on COVID-19 on Science Times.