People with lower disposable income are most likely to request diagnostic and antibody tests for COVID-19. By analysing the professional activities, healthcare workers are less likely to do tests, while older individuals with higher income are more willing to pay for said tests.
These are some of the results released by the study “Diaries of a Pandemic”, an initiative that has been taking place since March 23, aiming to analyse how the life of the Portuguese citizens evolves in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The data released apply to the period between May 1 and 18, 2020 – corresponding to 5.085 participants who answered questions about their intention to do diagnostic (testing with swabs) and antibody tests.
Among the people surveyed, one in four (27.5%) stated the desire to go through antibody testing. The will to carry out diagnostic tests was less frequent, with one in seven individuals (14.1% of the sample) indicating planning to do so.
According to the study, the number of individuals wanting to do diagnostic and antibody tests is higher among those with lower disposable income. More specifically, and regarding the diagnostic tests, the study shows that the amount of participants expressing said intention “was three times higher among those who had insufficient income, particularly when compared to those with stable income”. Regarding the intention to do antibody tests, “it was twice as high among those who had insufficient income”, stated the report.
For Raquel Lucas, researcher and member of the “Diaries of a Pandemic” team, “the fact that individuals with lower income are more keen to do tests may be related to their greater exposure to the virus, since they’re the ones who most often left their homes to work, during the state of emergency”.
Differences between professional activities
Regarding the professional activities and the intention to do tests, results show that among employed participants, those who indicated greater willingness to do the diagnostic test work in lodging, catering and similar sectors, followed by those in the primary and secondary sectors. The intention to do this type of test was distinctly lower among healthcare professionals.
“Although healthcare professionals are more exposed to risk, their intention to do test is not significant. This can be explained by the personal protective equipment they use in the workplace, which provides them superior safety and protection, thus helping them avoid getting infected”, explained the ISPUP researcher.
Regarding the antibody tests, results show that there are no major differences regarding the intention to do said tests among professionals in the different sectors. Moreover, there was a greater number of healthcare professionals planning to do the antibody tests, most likely to understand if they have already had contact with the virus and if they are already immune.
The report data also shows that older people (aged 60 or more) and those with higher income are more willing to pay for diagnostic and antibody tests.
People should keep participating!
The researchers of the “Diaries of a pandemic” will continue to collect information about the way the Portuguese people act according to a set of situations that may influence the course of the COVID-19 pandemic in Portugal, and they will release new results on a weekly basis.
In order to keep producing relevant scientific knowledge in this field, we need your collaboration. In this sense, we ask you to keep dedicating 5 to 10 minutes of your time and answer our survey questions – that has been taking place on a weekly basis since May 25.
If you’re not part of the “Diaries of a Pandemic” yet, you can start right now. You can check the latest results here, as well as the results from previous weeks.
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