Background: Various screening tools have been proposed and studied for identifying COVID-19 rt-PCR positive cases in both primary and secondary care However, none of them has been questionnaire-based screening tools that could be used by primary care staff who are the first point of contact for a COVID 19 suspected individual in a health care system.
Aim: The aim was to study the predictive value of Primary Health Care Corporations (PHCC) Triage Questionnaire in identifying patients with RT-PCR positive COVID-19 infection.
Design and Setting: The study was conducted among patients who presented to primary health care centres in Qatar with a clinical presentation that could possibly be positive for the COVID-19 RT-PCR test.
Method: It was a cross-sectional study done on data collected from patients presenting to a primary care health centre with symptoms suggestive of COVID-19 infection. The visual triage questionnaire is completed and an oropharyngeal and nasopharyngeal swab was taken for COVID-19 rt-PCR test. Demographic data were collected and analysed.
Results: 11234 (24.58%) of the total 45699 people who were tested during the study period tested positive on RT-PCR for COVID-19 and 34465 (75.42%), negative. There were no significant gender differences between these groups. The sensitivity of the questionnaire to detect COVID-19 RT-PCR positive patients was 42.89% and the specificity, 59.42%. On multivariate analysis male gender, age more than 40 years, fever and cough were positively
Key words: Triage Questionnaire, COVID-19, General Practice, Primary health Care, First Contact
|
