The acceptability and feasibility of CRP POCT test for respiratory diagnosis in children in Kyrgyzstan: the qualitative study

Introduction: In Kyrgyzstan, the prevalence of acute respiratory infections in children is very high. The C-reactive protein is reliable biomarker for assessing need of antibiotics. The randomised controlled trial “C-reactive protein point-of-care test (CRP POCT) for respiratory diagnosis in children in Kyrgyzstan” is trying to study the effectiveness of this method and it is near to completion. We want to assess an acceptability, adoption, appropriateness, feasibility and sustainability through semi-structured interviews. Method: Data will be collected at two stages: before and after the introduction of CRP-testing in the clinics. The interviews will be semi-structured and face-to-face. The questions will be open-ended and explore the clinicians experience in daily work. Stage 1 will be carried out before the CRP-intervention is rolled out. Participants (15 healthcare workers). An interview guide will be developed and the questions will comprise how clinicians handle the diagnostic process; what they find to be easy and difficult when seeing patients respiratory symptoms. Stage 2 will be carried out when clinicians have been using CRP in 8 weeks. Interviews will ascertain enablers and barriers to intervention and will assess intervention research outcomes such as acceptability, adoption, appropriateness, feasibility and sustainability. Results: The data analysis for Stage 1 is in process. The data collection of Stage 2 is ongoing. We expect data collection to be completed in the end of March 2023 and plan to complete the thematic analysis for both stages in mid-April. Discussion: Healthcare professionals really crave the help in clinical practice in the form of CRP POCT, but they do not connect the problem of antibiotic resistance with CRP testing, but rather think that CRP should be used only in rheumatology. The main barrier in this implementation, health workers see in the poor supply of reagents in the future.