Adequacy of a novel qualitative fit test kit and protocol during the COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT

Objectives@#To develop our own qualitative fit test kit and protocol for respirators and validate this against the manufacturer-issued kit. @*Methods@#This is a crossover study of 50 healthcare workers in a tertiary government hospital. Some healthcare workers were tested multiple times according to the number of respirators they want tested. Qualitative fit testing was done according to manufacturer protocol for the commercial kits or according to our own protocol for the novel kits. @*Results@#A total of 63 fit tests were analyzed. This novel kit was determined to be noninferior to manufacturer-issued kits in detecting leaks among worn respirators (p=0.005). @*Conclusion@#A fit test kit can be successfully created from readily available household and hospital materials. Fit tests with these novel kits using our validated protocol are shown to be noninferior to commercial test kits. This can greatly aid in qualitative fit testing of respirators in a logistically constrained pandemic setting.