Many persons with active SARS-CoV-2 infection experience mild or no symptoms, presenting barriers to COVID-19 prevention. Regular temperature screening is nonetheless used in some settings, including university campuses, to reduce transmission potential. We evaluated the potential impact of this strategy using a prospective university-affiliated cohort. Between June and August 2020, 2912 participants were enrolled and tested for SARS-CoV-2 by PCR at least once (median: 3, range: 1–9). Participants reported temperature and symptoms daily via electronic survey using a previously owned or study-provided thermometer. We assessed feasibility and acceptability of daily temperature monitoring, calculated sensitivity and specificity of various fever-based strategies for restricting campus access to reduce transmission, and estimated the association between measured temperature and SARS-CoV-2 test positivity using a longitudinal binomial mixed model. Most participants (70.2%) did not initially have a thermometer for taking their temperature daily. Across 5481 total person months, the average daily completion rate of temperature values was 61.6% (median: 67.6%, IQR: 41.8–86.2%). Sensitivity for SARS-CoV-2 ranged from 0% (95% CI 0–9.7%) to 40.5% (95% CI 25.6–56.7%) across all strategies for self-report of possible COVID-19 symptoms on day of specimen collection, with corresponding specificity of 99.9% (95% CI 99.8–100%) to 95.3% (95% CI 94.7–95.9%). An increase of 0.1 °F in individual mean body temperature on the same day as specimen collection was associated with 1.11 increased odds of SARS-CoV-2 positivity (95% CI 1.06–1.17). Our study is the first, to our knowledge, that examines the feasibility, acceptability, and effectiveness of daily temperature screening in a prospective cohort during an infectious disease outbreak, and the only study to assess these strategies in a university population. Daily temperature monitoring was feasible and acceptable; however, the majority of potentially infectious individuals were not detected by temperature monitoring, suggesting that temperature screening is insufficient as a primary means of detection to reduce transmission of SARS-CoV-2.

中文翻译：

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在大型公立大学的前瞻性队列中进行每日体温筛查以检测 COVID-19 的可行性和有效性


许多感染 SARS-CoV-2 的人出现轻微症状或无症状，这给预防 COVID-19 带来了障碍。尽管如此，在包括大学校园在内的一些环境中仍会定期进行体温筛查，以减少传播的可能性。我们使用前瞻性的大学附属队列评估了这一策略的潜在影响。 2020 年 6 月至 8 月期间，2912 名参与者入组并至少进行了一次 PCR 检测（中位数：3，范围：1-9）。参与者使用以前拥有的或研究提供的温度计通过电子调查每天报告体温和症状。我们评估了日常温度监测的可行性和可接受性，计算了限制校园进入以减少传播的各种基于发烧的策略的敏感性和特异性，并使用纵向二项式混合模型估计了测量的温度与 SARS-CoV-2 检测阳性之间的关联。大多数参与者（70.2%）最初没有用于每天测量体温的温度计。在 5481 个人月中，温度值的平均每日完成率为 61.6%（中位数：67.6%，IQR：41.8–86.2%）。在样本采集当天自我报告可能的 COVID-19 症状的所有策略中，SARS-CoV-2 的敏感性范围为 0% (95% CI 0–9.7%) 至 40.5% (95% CI 25.6–56.7%) ，相应的特异性为 99.9% (95% CI 99.8–100%) 至 95.3% (95% CI 94.7–95.9%)。样本采集当天个体平均体温升高 0.1 °F 与 SARS-CoV-2 阳性几率增加 1.11 相关（95% CI 1.06-1.17）。 据我们所知，我们的研究是第一项在传染病爆发期间对前瞻性队列进行日常体温筛查的可行性、可接受性和有效性的研究，也是唯一一项在大学人群中评估这些策略的研究。每日体温监测可行且可接受；然而，大多数潜在感染者并未通过体温监测检测到，这表明体温筛查不足以作为减少 SARS-CoV-2 传播的主要检测手段。