Majority of adults believing they need a COVID-19 test delay or avoid testing, most often due to exposure fear<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n
<\/b><\/p>\n
<\/b><\/p>\n
WEDNESDAY, Dec. 16, 2020 (HealthDay News) — Three in four Americans who believed they needed a COVID-19 test report that they either did not get one or delayed getting one, according to the results of a survey released by Quest Diagnostics.<\/p>\n
An online survey of 2,050 U.S. adults was conducted by The Harris Poll on behalf of Quest Diagnostics between Nov. 10 and 12, 2020.<\/p>\n
According to the results of the survey, reasons cited for avoiding or delaying a COVID-19 test included concerns about exposure to the virus (30 percent), thinking it was very unlikely they had COVID-19 (21 percent), concerns over having to quarantine while waiting for results or if they were positive (15 percent), and cost (15 percent). Avoiding or delaying testing was more common among Hispanic\/Latinx adults (83 percent) versus Whites (non-Hispanic; 72 percent) and Blacks (72 percent). The results of the survey also confirmed previous findings that the majority of U.S. adults (60 percent) have skipped or delayed in-person medical treatments or appointments during the COVID-19 pandemic. <\/p>\n
“With a vaccine likely not making its way to the general public until spring at the earliest, the health care community needs to do a better job of helping Americans get back to routine care now,” Harvey W. Kaufman, M.D., head of the Health Trends Research Program for Quest Diagnostics, said in a statement. “Early diagnosis can save lives and putting off preventative care and chronic disease treatment could make the difference between life and death.”<\/p>\n