Impact of COVID-19 on the Health of the General and More Vulnerable Population and Its Determinants: Health Care and Social Survey-ESSOC, Study Protocol.

Carmen Sánchez-Cantalejo,Antonio Daponte-Codina,María Del Mar Rueda,Maria Antònia Barceló,Andrés Cabrera-León,Iria Enrique,Nicola Lorusso,Luis Castro,Miguel De La Fuente,Marc Saez,Román Villegas,Ramón Ferri

doi:10.3390/ijerph18158120

Abstract

This manuscript describes the rationale and protocol of a real-world data (RWD) study entitled Health Care and Social Survey (ESSOC, Encuesta Sanitaria y Social). The study’s objective is to determine the magnitude, characteristics, and evolution of the COVID-19 impact on overall health as well as the socioeconomic, psychosocial, behavioural, occupational, environmental, and clinical determinants of both the general and more vulnerable population. The study integrates observational data collected through a survey using a probabilistic, overlapping panel design, and data from clinical, epidemiological, demographic, and environmental registries. The data will be analysed using advanced statistical, sampling, and machine learning techniques. The study is based on several measurements obtained from three random samples of the Andalusian (Spain) population: general population aged 16 years and over, residents in disadvantaged areas, and people over the age of 55. Given the current characteristics of this pandemic and its future repercussions, this project will generate relevant information on a regular basis, commencing from the beginning of the State of Alarm. It will also establish institutional alliances of great social value, explore and apply powerful and novel methodologies, and produce large, integrated, high-quality and open-access databases. The information described here will be vital for health systems in order to design tailor-made interventions aimed at improving the health care, health, and quality of life of the populations most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Highlights

To determine the short- and mid-term impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the health and emotional well-being of the general population of Andalusia
This study employs a real-world data design to integrate observational data extracted from multiple sources, including information obtained from different providers based on surveys and clinical, epidemiological, population, and environmental registries
The geographical scope is the Region of Andalusia, samples of the Andalusian (Spain), and the population scopes are the general population over the age of 16 (ESSOCgeneral), the population residing in disadvantaged areas (ESSOCzones) [55], and the population over the age of 55 (ESSOC + 55)

Summary

Introduction

The Spanish Government officially declared a State of Alarm on 14 March 2020 (Spanish Royal Decree 463/2020 [11]) in the face of the global public health emergency caused by COVID-19 Among other actions, it ordered individuals’ freedom of movement to be limited (Article 7, “Limitación de la libertad de circulación de las personas”), which was subsequently restricted even further through other decrees (hereinafter referred to as confinement). These limitations have led to a series of still little-studied problems in the population In this sense, recent reviews of epidemic outbreaks and subsequent confinements have concluded that these actions have very negative and long-term impacts on mental health [12,13]. All studies agree on the urgent need for more evidence regarding the kind of impacts being experienced, in particular, evidence gathered from among the most exposed populations as well as those populations in a situation of greater vulnerability such as minors in foster care, ethnic minorities, the elderly or people with chronic diseases [8,18,19,20,21]

Objectives

Methods

Findings

Discussion

Conclusion