By Mary Hightower
UofA System
Division of Agriculture
Now that every home in the United States is eligible to order in-home COVID tests for no cost from the federal government, the Cooperative Extension Service wants to see whether people prefer at-home testing over those done in a medical office.
“We’ve all seen the long lines at testing centers around the state, we expect use of at-home tests will increase dramatically,” said Bryan Mader, assistant professor and extension health specialist for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture.
To gauge the usage of at-home tests and determine if the creation of publicly available educational resources is warranted, Mader has developed an online survey.
Mader said “widespread testing is critical to identifying and forecasting outbreaks, conducting effective contact tracing, and preventing the spread of COVID-19.
Anyone with signs or symptoms of COVID-19 should get tested, regardless of vaccination status or prior infection.”
Researchers will aggregate information at a group level and no individually identifiable participant data is being collected through this survey.
If you have any questions about this survey, please contact the survey administrator, Bryan Mader, at bmader@uada.edu.
Tests can be ordered online at www.covidtests.gov.
To learn about extension programs in Arkansas, contact your local Cooperative Extension Service agent or visit www.uaex.uada.edu. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram at @AR_Extension. To learn more about Division of Agriculture research, visit the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station website: aaes.uark.edu.
Follow on Twitter at @ArkAgResearch.
To learn more about the Division of Agriculture, visit uada.edu/. Follow us on Twitter at @AgInArk.
