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Results of the first survey among students and school teachers.
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As part of a large-scale coronavirus monitoring study in elementary schools, high schools, and lower levels of AHS, gurgling tests are used throughout the school year to determine the frequency of active corona infections among students and teachers in all of Austria.
The results of the first round are now available: in the period from September 28 to October 22, 40 of the around 10,000 participants were positive, the Ministry of Education and the four participating universities announced on Thursday.
Study in 243 schools in Austria
With regular monitoring, the Ministry of Education wants to get an overview of the infection situation. For the representative study of 243 schools in Austria, which is carried out by the Universities of Vienna and Linz and the Medical Universities of Graz and Innsbruck, primary and secondary I pupils and teachers were randomly selected for voluntary participation. During the school year, they are examined every three to five weeks at ten different times using a gargle test.
10,464 people tested, 40 tested positive
In the first study period (28.9.-22.10.) A total of 10,464 people were evaluated, about half of them from an elementary school (49.7 percent) and an AHS middle / lower school (50.3 percent) . 10,156 samples could be evaluated, 40 of which were positive. This corresponds to an overall prevalence of 0.39 percent, with a fluctuation range (95 percent confidence interval) of 0.28 to 0.55 percent.
“This is the first time that we have data on the number of unreported cases of infections in schools,” the scientific coordinator of the study, microbiologist Michael Wagner of the University of Vienna, told the APA. Those who tested positive are people who had no obvious symptoms. In addition to their number, there would also be those children and teachers who had already tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 or who were not in school on the days of the test due to symptoms of an infection not yet diagnosed.
Difficult to compare based on study results
The overall prevalence is very difficult to put into context, Wagner cautioned against “comparing apples to pears.” For example, one might be tempted to compare the prevalence now recorded in schools with the proportion of the population acutely infected during the same period, which is certainly lower. “But that is not plausible because this number does not include the number of unreported cases in the general population and no one has done tests in all of Austria,” Wagner said.
The comparison with the positivity rate between the tests carried out is also limping, “because mainly people with symptoms or K1 people go to the test streets.” The prevalence of 0.39 percent also could not be compared with the gurgling test results recently presented in Vienna schools, as only suspected cases were controlled.
No statistically significant differences were found between elementary schools (prevalence: 0.38 percent) and middle schools / AHS lower level (0.41 percent) or between students (0.37 percent) and teachers (0, 57 percent). The often-heard argument that younger children have fewer infections than older children would not support the test results, the microbiologist emphasized. High school students are not tested in this study.
Social disadvantage plays a role in the likelihood of contracting coronavirus
On the other hand, differences in prevalence were found between schools with different indices of social disadvantage. In schools with many children from socially disadvantaged families, the risk of contracting the infection was 3.6 times higher (odds ratio) than in schools with few children from this family background. This difference persists even when taking into account average class sizes, population density in the school’s catchment area, and the state, Wagner says.
The scientist emphasized that it was not possible to say whether clusters of infections could be observed in schools due to the design of the study. However, local incidence has a significant influence on what happens in the school: unsurprisingly, in places with many infections there was also a higher probability of positive tests in schools: ‘what drives something, that is, what what happens in the area at school or vice versa, but we don’t know. “
A second follow-up study is currently being conducted in schools
Since there is a connection to local advocacy, it is to be expected that the numbers in the second round of testing, currently in progress, will also increase in schools. It is scientifically interesting to Wagner that Statistics Austria’s prevalence study, also commissioned by the Ministry of Education, is being run in randomly selected adults. “With the results of both surveys, it will be possible to tell based on the facts if you have fewer, the same number or more infections in school than in the general population.”
The study would also provide politicians with data for discussion about school closings. “But psychologists, sociologists, economic researchers, etc. do that too, and so it is the unenviable task of politics to integrate this and make evidence-based decisions,” Wagner said.
Education Minister Heinz Faßmann (ÖVP) hopes that the first results of the school monitoring will make a “significant contribution to objectifying the debate.” The minister emphasized in a statement sent to the APA that school operations could only function as safely as possible in the coming months with the proper data.
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