In community-based studies of acute respiratory illnesses, clinical specimens from the upper respiratory tract may be collected from patients at different stages of disease for virological testing. Although those clinical specimens are typically collected by trained healthcare professionals (HCPs) in a clinic setting, selfcollection by the patient at home may be a more acceptable, economical, and logistically feasible alternative. We investigated whether self-collected nose and throat swabs (NTSs) from patients in a community setting could provide a valid alternative for virologic confirmation of influenza A or B virus infection. Based on 2 similarly designed community-based studies, we modeled the viral shedding patterns from illness onset, adjusting for delays between clinical symptom onset and specimen collection, and compared the quantitative viral load measurements in self-swabs with model-based predictions.