META-ANALYSIS STUDY: NASOPHARYNGEAL SWABS ARE MORE SENSITIVE THAN OROPHARYNGEAL SWABS IN THE DETECTION OF THE VIRAL GENOME OF SARS-CoV-2

One of the commendable steps to curb the spread of coronavirus disease is detecting the virus immediately. Hence, the most suitable sample and an accurate diagnostic test, such as a nasopharyngeal swab and oropharyngeal swab, can be critical for achieving this goal. However, there is not 100% reliant on the sampling method and used tests as there are possibilities of false negatives due to the inadequate viral genome in the sample. Therefore, this paper aims to conduct a meta-analysis study to collect shreds of evidence of the sensitivity from previously published articles and compare them to achieve the best sampling method for SARS-CoV-2 viral genome detection. A total of 10 studies were retrieved and evaluated accordingly. In addition, an independent t-test was used to compare the sensitivity percentage between nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal swabs to identify the most suitable sampling method for coronavirus viral genome isolation. Results showed that the nasopharyngeal swab was statistically higher sensitive than the oropharyngeal swab, t (18) = 2.111, p < 0.05. Therefore, the nasopharyngeal swab is better than the oropharyngeal swab regarding sensitivity rate towards detecting the viral genome of SARS-CoV-2.