The BEready project aims to find out how people in the Canton of Bern can be helped to be more prepared for the next pandemic. BEready wants to understand how infections spread among people as well as between people and animals. BEready wants to find out how social and environmental factors can influence the transmission or catching of infectious diseases. BEready wants to better understand how households and their pets in the Canton of Bern were and continue to be affected by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
The overall aim is to establish BEready as a 'pandemic preparedness cohort', a cohort with a well-characterised study population of households, which has an infrastructure to conduct studies about infectious diseases, and which can be rapidly mobilised to respond to a new pandemic. BEready aims to understand the epidemiology and transmission of infectious diseases (particularly viral respiratory pathogens) in households including pets in the canton of Bern, and to engage diverse communities in efforts to strengthen pandemic preparedness. The objectives are: * to study the distribution and timing of infectious diseases and transmission patterns of circulating infectious diseases, both between individuals and at the human-animal interface (One Health) * to study social (e.g. gender, affective polarisation) and environmental factors (e.g. climate change), which may affect transmission or acquisition of infectious diseases; * to understand how households, including their pets, in the canton of Bern have been and will be affected by COVID-19; and * to engage diverse communities in ongoing efforts to strengthen pandemic and public health literacy, and to prepare for the public health response to a new pandemic.
Study Type
OBSERVATIONAL
Enrollment
2,157
University of Bern
Bern, Switzerland
Response rate among the randomly sampled participants
Percentage agreeing to take part, divided by the number invited, by age and sex (study level)
Time frame: Baseline
Attendance of follow up visits (to derive factors associated with research participation)
Percentage of completed questionnaire (study level)
Time frame: At every annual follow-up for up to 100 years
Incidence of respiratory virus detection in symptomatic persons
Test positivity: percentage of nasal swab samples with a positive result for specific respiratory viruses among all viruses detected amongst those reporting disease events cumulatively by the end of one year; incidence rate for any detected virus and for specific viruses: number of nasal swab samples with a positive result per 100 person years of follow-up (individual level, infection-related)
Time frame: At the end of a 12 months period
Seroprevalence of antibodies to respiratory viruses
Proportion of serum samples with antibodies to specific respiratory viruses (individual level, infection-related)
Time frame: At baseline and annually thereafter for up to 100 years
Incidence of co-infection/co-colonisation at the pet/owner interface
Proportion of serum samples with antibodies to specific parasites (individual level, infection-related)
Time frame: Throughout follow-up for up to 100 years
Incidence of animal diseases diagnosed through syndromic surveillance
Based on each case definition, e.g. febrile illness, incidence of syndromic diagnoses by month (individual level, infection-related)
Time frame: Throughout follow-up for up to 100 years
Prevalence of post-acute viral symptoms
Individual level, infection-related
Time frame: At baseline and annually thereafter for up to 100 years
Gender roles
Gender is a cross-cutting theme. Associations with gender measured by questionnaire will be examined for all endpoints (individual level, personal, social, demographic).
Time frame: At all timepoints for up to 100 years
Number of daily social contacts
Numbers of social contacts between humans, according to age group and location (individual level, personal, social, demographic)
Time frame: At baseline and annually thereafter for up to 100 years
Affective polarisation
Mean and standard deviation of Likert scale scores (individual level, personal, social, demographic)
Time frame: At baseline
Knowledge of pandemic preparedness
Knowledge measured by questionnaire. Summary of the survey data (individual level, personal, social, demographic)
Time frame: At baseline
Knowledge of vector-borne diseases
Knowledge measured by questionnaire. Summary of the survey data (individual level, personal, social, demographic)
Time frame: At baseline
Experienced marginalisation
Experience measured by questionnaire. Summary of the survey data (individual level, personal, social, demographic)
Time frame: At baseline
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