Abstract
The Rotterdam Study is an ongoing prospective, population-based cohort study that started in 1989 in the city of Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The study aims to unravel etiology, preclinical course, natural history and potential targets for intervention for chronic diseases in mid-life and late-life. It focuses on cardiovascular, endocrine, hepatic, neurological, ophthalmic, psychiatric, dermatological, otolaryngological, locomotor, and respiratory diseases. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, a substudy was designed and embedded within the Rotterdam Study. On the 20th of April, 2020, all living non-institutionalized participants of the Rotterdam Study (n = 8732) were invited to participate in this sub-study by filling out a series of questionnaires administered over a period of 8 months. These questionnaires included questions on COVID-19 related symptoms and risk factors, characterization of lifestyle and mental health changes, and determination of health care seeking and health care avoiding behavior during the pandemic. As of May 2021, the questionnaire had been sent out repeatedly for a total of six times with an overall response rate of 76%. This article provides an overview of the rationale, design, and implementation of this sub-study nested within the Rotterdam Study. Finally, initial results on participant characteristics and prevalence of COVID-19 in this community-dwelling population are shown.
Highlights
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has had huge impact on society, both in terms of morbidity and mortality due to COVID-19, as on physical and psychosocial health
Numerous reports have been published on the prevalence and risk factors of COVID-19 in the general population, very little data comes from studies that are nested within ongoing cohorts [8, 9]
Embedding a questionnaire in a closed population-based cohort study facilitates assessment of a wide range of systematically collected determinants that predispose to SARS-CoV-2 contraction or transmission in the general population, such as genetic or lifestyle factors [9]. It allows for the determination of long-term consequences on general health and wellbeing of COVID-19 cases itself, yet provides an opportunity to quantify collateral damage of governmental countermeasures to mental health or the consequences of healthcare avoidance during a pandemic
Summary
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has had huge impact on society, both in terms of morbidity and mortality due to COVID-19, as on physical and psychosocial health. As the disease spread across populations from late 2019 onwards, so did a multitude of research activities aimed at Against this backdrop of expanding knowledge about this emerging disease, several areas remain understudied. It remains unclear which host-determinants, such as genomics, microbiome, metabolome and lifestyle aspects, are important for contracting SARS-CoV-2 and determining the (sub)clinical manifestation of COVID-19. Long-term effects of governmental countermeasures against the spread of SARS-CoV-2 are expected, but have been quantified limitedly on a population-level This involves consequences on non-COVID-19 related physical health, such as delays in healthcare
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