Clinical trial NCT06739499: Bern, Get Ready (BEready) Cohort Study for Pandemic Preparedness
Official title: Bern, Get Ready (BEready) Population-based Cohort Study for Pandemic Preparedness: Main Study
Study type: OBSERVATIONAL
Overall status: RECRUITING
Conditions: Pandemic, COVID-19
Infections
Zoonoses
Epidemic Disease
Respiratory Tract Infections
Keywords: One Health
Pandemic preparedness
Community engagement
Lead sponsor: University of Bern
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: Stiftung Vinetum
First posted: 2024-12-18
Enrollment: 2500
Sex: ALL
Standard ages: CHILD
ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Observational model: COHORT
Time perspective: PROSPECTIVE
Sampling method: PROBABILITY_SAMPLE
Study population: BEready will include a spectrum of the Bernese population living in private households, including adults, children and pets. A private household is defined as a person living alone or group of persons living in the same dwelling.

The study population for the BEready cohort will be enrolled from different sources in the source population of the canton of Bern. BEready aims to enrol around 1,500 households in total from:

* Households already participating in the BEready pilot study
* A random selection of households in Bern using the cantonal residents' register
* Volunteer households from the general public

Brief summary: 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).

Detailed description: 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.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion criteria for adults and children:

* Informed consent
* Residence (average of more than 3 days/week) in a private household in the canton of Bern where at least one member aged 18 agreed to take part.
* For adults, children aged 14 years or older, and parents/legal guardians: internet connection (Wi-Fi, fixed or on a mobile phone) and personal email address.
* For adults, children aged 11 years or older, and parents/legal guardians: able to understand, speak, read and write German, French and/or English.

Inclusion criteria for household pets: Pets of eligible household members with the consent of their owners.

Exclusion criteria for adults and children: Currently planned move outside the canton of Bern

Primary outcomes:
measure: Response rate among the randomly sampled participants
timeFrame: Baseline
measure: Attendance of follow up visits (to derive factors associated with research participation)
timeFrame: At every annual follow-up for up to 100 years
measure: Incidence of respiratory virus detection in symptomatic persons
timeFrame: At the end of a 12 months period
measure: Seroprevalence of antibodies to respiratory viruses
timeFrame: At baseline and annually thereafter for up to 100 years
measure: Incidence of co-infection/co-colonisation at the pet/owner interface
timeFrame: Throughout follow-up for up to 100 years
measure: Incidence of animal diseases diagnosed through syndromic surveillance
timeFrame: Throughout follow-up for up to 100 years
measure: Prevalence of post-acute viral symptoms
timeFrame: At baseline and annually thereafter for up to 100 years
measure: Gender roles
timeFrame: At all timepoints for up to 100 years
measure: Number of daily social contacts
timeFrame: At baseline and annually thereafter for up to 100 years
measure: Affective polarisation
timeFrame: At baseline
measure: Knowledge of pandemic preparedness
timeFrame: At baseline
measure: Knowledge of vector-borne diseases
timeFrame: At baseline
measure: Experienced marginalisation
timeFrame: At baseline
Secondary outcomes:
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Bern
country: Switzerland
facility: University of Bern
Study officials:
affiliation: University of Bern
name: Nicola Low, Prof. Dr. med.
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References: