Estimating the duration of RT-PCR positivity for SARS-CoV-2 from doubly interval censored data with undetected infections

Fuente: arXiv
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Autores principales: Blake, Joshua, Birrell, Paul, Walker, A. Sarah, Pouwels, Koen B., House, Thomas, Tom, Brian D. M., Kypraios, Theodore, De Angelis, Daniela
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2025
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author Blake, Joshua
Birrell, Paul
Walker, A. Sarah
Pouwels, Koen B.
House, Thomas
Tom, Brian D. M.
Kypraios, Theodore
De Angelis, Daniela
author_facet Blake, Joshua
Birrell, Paul
Walker, A. Sarah
Pouwels, Koen B.
House, Thomas
Tom, Brian D. M.
Kypraios, Theodore
De Angelis, Daniela
contents Monitoring the incidence of new infections during a pandemic is critical for an effective public health response. General population prevalence surveys for SARS-CoV-2 can provide high-quality data to estimate incidence. However, estimation relies on understanding the distribution of the duration that infections remain detectable. This study addresses this need using data from the Coronavirus Infection Survey (CIS), a long-term, longitudinal, general population survey conducted in the UK. Analyzing these data presents unique challenges, such as doubly interval censoring, undetected infections, and false negatives. We propose a Bayesian nonparametric survival analysis approach, estimating a discrete-time distribution of durations and integrating prior information derived from a complementary study. Our methodology is validated through a simulation study, including its resilience to model misspecification, and then applied to the CIS dataset. This results in the first estimate of the full duration distribution in a general population, as well as methodology that could be transferred to new contexts.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2502_04824
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Estimating the duration of RT-PCR positivity for SARS-CoV-2 from doubly interval censored data with undetected infections
Blake, Joshua
Birrell, Paul
Walker, A. Sarah
Pouwels, Koen B.
House, Thomas
Tom, Brian D. M.
Kypraios, Theodore
De Angelis, Daniela
Methodology
Applications
Monitoring the incidence of new infections during a pandemic is critical for an effective public health response. General population prevalence surveys for SARS-CoV-2 can provide high-quality data to estimate incidence. However, estimation relies on understanding the distribution of the duration that infections remain detectable. This study addresses this need using data from the Coronavirus Infection Survey (CIS), a long-term, longitudinal, general population survey conducted in the UK. Analyzing these data presents unique challenges, such as doubly interval censoring, undetected infections, and false negatives. We propose a Bayesian nonparametric survival analysis approach, estimating a discrete-time distribution of durations and integrating prior information derived from a complementary study. Our methodology is validated through a simulation study, including its resilience to model misspecification, and then applied to the CIS dataset. This results in the first estimate of the full duration distribution in a general population, as well as methodology that could be transferred to new contexts.
title Estimating the duration of RT-PCR positivity for SARS-CoV-2 from doubly interval censored data with undetected infections
topic Methodology
Applications
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.04824