Department of Clinical Sciences, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Liverpool, UK.
Infection and Immunity, Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Parkville, VIC, 3050, Australia.
Sci Rep. 2023 Oct 24;13(1):18201. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-45574-6.
Monitoring the presence of commensal and pathogenic respiratory microorganisms is of critical global importance. However, community-based surveillance is difficult because nasopharyngeal swabs are uncomfortable and painful for a wide age range of participants. We designed a methodology for minimally invasive self-sampling at home and assessed its use for longitudinal monitoring of the oral, nasal and hand microbiota of adults and children within families. Healthy families with two adults and up to three children, living in and near Liverpool, United Kingdom, self-collected saliva, nasal lining fluid using synthetic absorptive matrices and hand swabs at home every two weeks for six months. Questionnaires were used to collect demographic and epidemiological data and assess feasibility and acceptability. Participants were invited to take part in an exit interview. Thirty-three families completed the study. Sampling using our approach was acceptable to 25/33 (76%) families, as sampling was fast (76%), easy (76%) and painless (60%). Saliva and hand sampling was acceptable to all participants of any age, whereas nasal sampling was accepted mostly by adults and children older than 5 years. Multi-niche self-sampling at home can be used by adults and children for longitudinal surveillance of respiratory microorganisms, providing key data for design of future studies.
监测共生和致病呼吸道微生物的存在具有全球重要性。然而，基于社区的监测很困难，因为鼻咽拭子对广泛年龄段的参与者来说既不舒服又痛苦。我们设计了一种在家中进行微创自我采样的方法，并评估了其用于监测家庭内成年人和儿童的口腔、鼻腔和手部微生物组的纵向使用情况。在英国利物浦及其附近居住的健康家庭，由两名成年人和最多三名儿童组成，他们在家中每两周自行采集唾液、使用合成吸收垫采集鼻腔衬里液和手部拭子，持续六个月。问卷调查用于收集人口统计学和流行病学数据，并评估可行性和可接受性。参与者被邀请参加退出访谈。33 个家庭完成了研究。我们的方法采样得到了 25/33（76%）个家庭的认可，因为采样速度快（76%）、简单（76%）且无痛（60%）。唾液和手部采样被任何年龄的参与者都接受了，而鼻腔采样则主要被 5 岁以上的成年人和儿童接受。家庭多生态位自我采样可用于成年人和儿童对呼吸道微生物的纵向监测，为未来研究的设计提供关键数据。
