HIGHLIGHTS
- CDC requires research data to inform COVID-19 recommendations.
- Abt led network studies to assess risk and characterize disease epidemiology.
- Results informed public health guidance and policies.
The Challenge
CDC’s analysis of COVID-19 surveillance data informs public health policies, communication about protective behaviors, and guidance to public health and healthcare providers, communities, businesses, and schools. CDC contracted with Abt to conduct five studies to collect critical data from key populations:
- Research on the Epidemiology of SARS-CoV-2 in Essential Response personnel (RECOVER) Study
- Pediatric Research Observing Trends and Exposures in COVID-19 Timelines (PROTECT) Study
- Epidemiology of SARS-CoV-2 in Pregnancy and Infancy (ESPI) Network Study
- Geisinger Electronic Cohort (GEICO) Study and Geisinger Prospective (GEIPR) Case-Control Study
- COVID-19 Illness and Testing among Retirement Communities in the US (CITRUS) Cohort Study
- Coronavirus Household Evaluation and Respiratory Testing (C-HEaRT) Cohort Study
The Approach
Abt led a network of clinical partners conducting prospective cohort studies to assess such issues as:
- household transmission of COVID-19
- transmissibility of infection
- rates of infection and illness
- clinical epidemiology of the disease
- characteristics of medically and non-medically attended COVID-19 cases.
To the extent possible, Abt used the existing infrastructure set up to conduct network studies to assess risk and characterize disease epidemiology of novel influenza or other novel respiratory viruses among different cohorts.
The Results
Abt recruited more than 9,600 participants for the six studies. We also collected electronic data from medical records for 78,000 hospitalized and ambulatory patients for secondary data analyses.
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