Introduction

The COVID pandemic has altered health care delivery, including clinical research, by introduction of measures to reduce COVID. How these measures affect clinical research participation is unclear.

Objectives

The purpose of this survey was to document research volunteer's attitudes toward COVID infection control procedures.

Methods

Our research program implemented the following: 1. Staff wore masks, disposable gowns, face shields and gloves when with subjects. 2. Subjects were asked if they tested positive or were experiencing COVID symptoms; upon entry their temperature was measured, and hand sanitizer used. 3. Disinfecting was expanded to all scanner room surfaces in contact with humans between each visit. 4. Only 1 subject was allowed in the research office at a time. Staff, when possible, remained > 6 feet away from other persons. As part of a study evaluating total body DXA, community dwelling volunteers completed a self-administered health care delivery preference survey from Dec 2020 to May 2021. A 5-point scale was used to capture responses to 10 questions (Table 1). Responses were tested using Chi Square with age and sex comparisons assessed by ANOVA.

Results

Eighty-two adults (41F/41M) mean (SD) age 50.9 (18.3) yrs (range 18-79) without sex difference participated. Participants strongly agreed (84%; p < 0.001) they were more comfortable seeing effort to prevent COVID-19; 72% agreed 1 subject, without a companion, should be seen, and 81% strongly agreed masks be required. Seeing staff clean visit space was important to 66%, more so among women (33%) than men (21% (p = 0.007)). Most subjects (83%) reported comfort having elective procedures and did not feel “unclean” or “diseased” (87%) by procedures. Some, 26%, preferred a non-hospital setting, 66% were neutral; those age 50+ (17%) preferred this more (p = 0.004) than younger subjects (5%). Finally, 91% preferred to have a brief test description before visit arrival.

Conclusions

In this university-based study, most subjects favored masking, cleaning and limiting personal contact for research visits. Notably, no information regarding vaccination status was exchanged and the study began just as vaccines became available and ended just after all US citizens over age 16 were eligible for vaccination. Thus, it is unknown if vaccination status might alter research participation perception. However, people do prefer that steps are taken to reduce infection in research settings. It seems likely that this would be the case in clinical care settings.

中文翻译：

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研究主题对减少 COVID-19 感染控制程序的看法

介绍

COVID 大流行通过引入减少 COVID 的措施改变了医疗保健的提供，包括临床研究。这些措施如何影响临床研究参与尚不清楚。

目标

本次调查的目的是记录研究志愿者对 COVID 感染控制程序的态度。

方法

我们的研究计划实施了以下内容： 1. 工作人员在与受试者在一起时佩戴口罩、一次性防护服、面罩和手套。2. 询问受试者是否检测呈阳性或出现 COVID 症状；进入时测量他们的温度，并使用洗手液。3. 消毒范围扩大到每次访问之间与人接触的所有扫描室表面。4. 研究室一次只允许一名受试者进入。在可能的情况下，工作人员与其他人保持 > 6 英尺的距离。作为评估全身 DXA 研究的一部分，社区居民志愿者完成了从 2020 年 12 月到 2021 年 5 月的自我管理的医疗保健提供偏好调查。使用 5 点量表来收集对 10 个问题的回答（表 1）。使用 Chi Square 测试响应，并通过 ANOVA 评估年龄和性别比较。

结果

八十二名成人 (41F/41M) 平均 (SD) 年龄 50.9 (18.3) 岁（范围 18-79），无性别差异参与。参与者强烈同意（84%；p < 0.001）他们更愿意看到预防 COVID-19 的努力；72% 的人同意应该看到 1 个没有同伴的受试者，81% 的人强烈同意需要戴口罩。66% 的人认为员工清洁参观空间很重要，女性 (33%) 比男性 (21% (p = 0.007)) 更重要。大多数受试者 (83%) 表示对选择性手术感到舒适，并且不会因手术而感到“不干净”或“生病”(87%)。一些人（26%）更喜欢非医院环境，66% 是中性的；那些 50 岁以上的人 (17%) 比年轻的受试者 (5%) 更喜欢这个 (p = 0.004)。最后，91% 的人更愿意在访问到达之前有一个简短的测试描述。

结论

在这项以大学为基础的研究中，大多数受试者倾向于在研究访问中戴上面具、清洁和限制个人接触。值得注意的是，没有交换有关疫苗接种状态的信息，该研究在疫苗可用时开始，并在所有 16 岁以上的美国公民有资格接种疫苗后结束。因此，尚不清楚疫苗接种状况是否会改变研究参与的看法。然而，人们确实更喜欢采取措施减少研究环境中的感染。在临床护理环境中似乎很可能就是这种情况。