Loading...
Cohort Profile: Virus Watch-understanding community incidence, symptom profiles and transmission of COVID-19 in relation to population movement and behaviour
Byrne, Thomas Kovar, Jana Beale, Sarah Braithwaite, Isobel Fragaszy, Ellen Fong, Wing Lam Erica
Byrne, Thomas
Kovar, Jana
Beale, Sarah
Braithwaite, Isobel
Fragaszy, Ellen
Fong, Wing Lam Erica
Abstract
• Virus Watch is a national community cohort study of COVID-19 in households in England and Wales, established in
June 2020. The study aims to provide evidence on which public health approaches are most effective in reducing
transmission, and to investigate community incidence, symptoms and transmission of COVID-19 in relation to
population movement and behaviours.
• In all, 28 527 households and 58 628 participants of age (0–98 years, mean age 48), were recruited between June 2020
and March 2022.
• Data collected include demographics and details of occupation, comorbidities, medications and infection-prevention
behaviours. Households are followed up weekly with illness surveys capturing symptoms and their severity, activities
in the week prior to symptom onset and any COVID-19 test results. Additional occasional surveys capture household
finance, employment, mental health, access to health care, vaccination uptake, activities and contacts. Data have
been linked to Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), inpatient and critical care episodes, outpatient visits, emergency care
contacts, mortality, virology testing and vaccination data held by National Health Service (NHS) Digital.
• Nested within Virus Watch are a serology and Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) cohort study (n ¼ 12 877) and a
vaccine evaluation study (n ¼ 19 555).
• Study data are deposited in the Office of National Statistics (ONS) Secure Research Service (SRS). Survey data are
available under restricted access upon request to ONS SRS.
MIDER Authors
Affiliations
Citations
Altmetric:
Date
Type
Article
Collections
Files
Loading...
Virus watch.pdf
Adobe PDF, 534.94 KB
Citation
Byrne T, Kovar J, Beale S, Braithwaite I, Fragaszy E, Fong WLE, Geismar C, Hoskins S, Navaratnam AMD, Nguyen V, Patel P, Shrotri M, Yavlinsky A, Hardelid P, Wijlaars L, Nastouli E, Spyer M, Aryee A, Cox I, Lampos V, Mckendry RA, Cheng T, Johnson AM, Michie S, Gibbs J, Gilson R, Rodger A, Abubakar I, Hayward A, Aldridge RW. Cohort Profile: Virus Watch-understanding community incidence, symptom profiles and transmission of COVID-19 in relation to population movement and behaviour. Int J Epidemiol. 2023 Jun 22:dyad087. doi: 10.1093/ije/dyad087. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 37349899.