At-home testing tripled during omicron, but data show disparities in use
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At-home testing for COVID-19 more than tripled during the omicron wave in the United States, but there were disparities in the tests’ use, according to a study published Friday in MMWR.
Data showed at-home testing was less common among people who were older, Black, had a lower income and a high school education level or less, Benjamin Rader, MPH, a graduate research fellow at Boston Children’s Hospital and the Boston University School of Public Health, and colleagues reported.
They collected data from more than 418,000 adult respondents to an online survey from Aug. 23 through March 12. The data “were used to estimate self-reported at-home test use over time, and by demographic characteristics, geography, symptoms/syndromes, and reasons for testing,” the researchers explained.
At-home testing among respondents who self-reported symptoms consistent with COVID-19 rose from 5.7% to 20.1% between the delta-predominant period of Aug. 23 to Dec. 11 and the omicron-predominant period of Dec. 19 through March 12, which also coincided with the U.S. government beginning to distribute free at-home tests, including through the mail. The two most reported reasons for testing were exposure (39.4%) and symptoms (28.9%).
The researchers found that white respondents (5.9%) were more than twice as likely to use a home test as Black respondents (2.8%). There also was a wide difference between test use among adults aged 30 to 39 years (6.4%) and adults aged 75 years or older (3.6%). Households with an income of at least $150,000 tested at twice the rate as those with incomes between $50,000 and $75,000 (9.5% vs. 4.7%). The same was true for respondents with a higher education level — 8.4% with post-graduate degrees used the tests vs. 3.5% with a high school education or less.
“Rapid, at-home diagnostic testing can provide convenient access to assessment of SARS-CoV-2 infection,” Rader and colleagues wrote. “Providing reliable and low-cost or free at-home test kits to underserved populations with otherwise limited access to COVID-19 testing could assist with continued prevention efforts.”
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