Public health and clinical approach to proactive Prevalence of symptoms-based diagnosis of mild SARS-CoV-2 infection in southern Tuscany.
Ann Ig
; 33(6): 533-542, 2021.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1076848
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
To date, it is unknown how many Italians have had or have a mild SARS-CoV-2 infection, because of the lack of epidemiological studies involving the general population. STUDYDESIGN:
Aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence/incidence of a symptoms-based mild SARS-CoV-2 infection in southern Tuscany, by using an online survey.METHODS:
An anonymous random middle-aged sample of 3,460 individuals completed the survey. A symptom-score ≥5, calculated on 195 patients with RT-PCR COVID-19 disease (sensitivity/specificity of 0.815/0.780 respectively) was used for the diagnosis.RESULTS:
This cut-off highlighted that 12.3% of all the population might have had a SARS-CoV-2 infection, while 3.9% of them might have it at the time of the survey. Female sex (OR=1.334 [1.029-1.728]; p=0.030), obesity status (OR=1.961 [1.304-2.949]; p=0.001), asthma (OR=2.035 [1.433-2.890]; p=0.0001), autoim-mune diseases (OR=2.103 [1.381-3.201]; p=0.001), were all risk factors for showing mild SARS-CoV-2 infection. Instead, the elderly had a low probability to develop mild forms of the disease (OR=0.984 [0.975-0.994]; p=0.001).CONCLUSION:
A remarkable number of subjects in Southern Tuscany may have already had a mild SARS-CoV-2 infection. Symptoms scores might be used to screen subjects with a suspected infection. Female sex, obesity, asthma, autoimmune diseases may be factors linked with mild forms of COVID-19 disease.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Public Health
/
Symptom Assessment
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Diagnostic study
/
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
/
Randomized controlled trials
Topics:
Long Covid
Limits:
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
/
Middle aged
Country/Region as subject:
Europa
Language:
English
Journal:
Ann Ig
Journal subject:
Microbiology
/
Public Health
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Ai.2021.2435
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