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Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research

Date Submitted: Jul 25, 2022
Open Peer Review Period: Jul 25, 2022 - Sep 19, 2022
Date Accepted: Sep 26, 2022
Date Submitted to PubMed: Oct 5, 2022
(closed for review but you can still tweet)

The final, peer-reviewed published version of this preprint can be found here:

The Potential Role of an Adjunctive Real-Time Locating System in Preventing Secondary Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in a Hospital Environment: Retrospective Case-Control Study

Kim MH, Ryu UH, Heo SJ, Kim YC, Park YS

The Potential Role of an Adjunctive Real-Time Locating System in Preventing Secondary Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in a Hospital Environment: Retrospective Case-Control Study

J Med Internet Res 2022;24(10):e41395

DOI: 10.2196/41395

PMID: 36197844

PMCID: 9580994

Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.

Potential Role of an Adjunctive Real Time Locating System in Preventing Secondary Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in a Hospital Environment: A Retrospective Case-control Study

  • Min Hyung Kim; 
  • Un Hyoung Ryu; 
  • Seok-Jae Heo; 
  • Yong Chan Kim; 
  • Yoon Soo Park

ABSTRACT

Background:

There has been an increase in the validation of new technologies in infection control in hospital settings with an increase in demands of investigation for its role on contact tracing.

Objective:

This study aimed to examine the validity of a real time locating system (RTLS) versus the conventional contact tracing method in identifying high-risk contacts that lead to secondary transmission of SARS-CoV-2.

Methods:

A retrospective case-control study was conducted with contacts of in-hospital confirmed COVID-19 patients, who were enrolled from January 23 to March 25, 2022, at a University hospital in South Korea. Contacts were identified using either the conventional method or RTLS. The primary endpoint of this study was secondary transmission of SARS-CoV-2 among contacts. Univariate and multivariable logistic regression analysis comparing test positive contacts and negative contacts were performed.

Results:

WWhile only 74 contact cases were identified by both methods, 509 cases and 653 cases were confirmed by the conventional method and RTLS, respectively. A higher sensitivity (653/1,088, 60.0%) of the RTLS tracing method than conventional tracing method (509/1,088, 46.8%) against all methods combined was noted. The secondary attack rate in RTLS traced contacts model was 8.1%, while that of the conventional method model was 6.1%. Multivariable logistic regression model revealed that RTLS was more capable of detecting secondary transmission than the conventional method (adjusted odds ratio: 4.51, [95% confidence interval: 1.42-14.27], P=.011).

Conclusions:

This study shows that RTLS proved beneficial when it is used as an adjunctive method to the conventional method for contact tracing that leads to secondary transmission. However, RTLS cannot completely replace traditional contact tracing.


 Citation

Please cite as:

Kim MH, Ryu UH, Heo SJ, Kim YC, Park YS

The Potential Role of an Adjunctive Real-Time Locating System in Preventing Secondary Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in a Hospital Environment: Retrospective Case-Control Study

J Med Internet Res 2022;24(10):e41395

DOI: 10.2196/41395

PMID: 36197844

PMCID: 9580994

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