TABLE 1.

Detection of bacterial pathogens in children with visible nasal secretions: prevalence, concordance, sensitivity, and specificity between sampling methods^a

Species and sampleb	No. (%) of positive cultures	P valuec	Concordanced (95% CI)	Cohen's kappa	Sensitivity (95% CI)	Specificity (95% CI)
Streptococcus pneumoniae
Nasopharyngeal swab	42 (64)	Reference	NA	NA	NA	NA
Nasal swab	42 (64)	1.000	88 (78–94)	0.74	91 (77–97)	83 (62–95)
Swab from a paper tissuee	42 (65)	1.000	80 (69–88)	0.57	85 (70–94)	71 (49–87)
Paper tissue directly	49 (74)	0.039	86 (76–93)	0.69	98 (86–100)	67 (45–84)
Haemophilus influenzae
Nasopharyngeal swab	46 (70)	Reference	NA	NA	NA	NA
Nasal swab	44 (67)	0.500	97 (90–99)	0.93	96 (84–99)	100 (80–100)
Swab from a paper tissue	42 (64)	0.125	94 (86–98)	0.86	91 (78–97)	100 (80–100)
Paper tissue directly	43 (65)	0.250	95 (88–99)	0.90	94 (81–98)	100 (80–100)
Moraxella catarrhalis
Nasopharyngeal swab	47 (71)	Reference	NA	NA	NA	NA
Nasal swab	49 (74)	0.687	91 (82–96)	0.77	96 (84–99)	79 (54–93)
Swab from a paper tissue	45 (68)	0.727	88 (78–94)	0.71	89 (76–96)	84 (60–96)
Paper tissue directly	45 (68)	0.727	88 (78–94)	0.71	89 (76–96)	84 (60–96)
Staphylococcus aureus
Nasopharyngeal swab	22 (33)	0.344	85 (75–92)	0.64	83 (58–96)	85 (72–94)
Nasal swab	18 (27)	Reference	NA	NA	NA	NA
Swab from a paper tissue	15 (23)	0.508	86 (76–93)	0.64	67 (41–86)	94 (82–98)
Paper tissue directly	25 (38)	0.065	83 (73–91)	0.63	89 (64–98)	81 (67–91)

^aAbbreviations: CI, confidence interval; NA, not applicable.

^bNasopharyngeal swab was considered the gold standard for detecting S. pneumoniae, H. influenzae, and M. catarrhalis; nasal swab was considered the gold standard for detecting S. aureus.

^cMcNemar's test for paired samples; compared with the respective gold standards for detection.

^dConcordance, proportion of “true” positives and negatives compared with the respective gold standards for detection.

^eCulture result for pneumococcus of one swab from a paper tissue was missing.