Cohort profile: the British Columbia COVID-19 Cohort (BCC19C)-a dynamic, linked population-based cohort.

Journal: Frontiers in public health

Volume: 12

Issue: 

Year of Publication: 2024

Affiliated Institutions:  BC Center for Disease Control, Provincial Health Services Authority, Vancouver, BC, Canada. Data Analytics, Reporting, and Evaluation, Provincial Health Services Authority, Vancouver, BC, Canada. Provincial Health Services Authority, Vancouver, BC, Canada.

Abstract summary 

The British Columbia COVID-19 Cohort (BCC19C) was developed from an innovative, dynamic surveillance platform and is accessed/analyzed through a cloud-based environment. The platform integrates recently developed provincial COVID-19 datasets (refreshed daily) with existing administrative holdings and provincial registries (refreshed weekly/monthly). The platform/cohort were established to inform the COVID-19 response in near "real-time" and to answer more in-depth epidemiologic questions.The surveillance platform facilitates the creation of large, up-to-date analytic cohorts of people accessing COVID-19 related services and their linked medical histories. The program of work focused on creating/analyzing these cohorts is referred to as the BCC19C. The administrative/registry datasets integrated within the platform are not specific to COVID-19 and allow for selection of "control" individuals who have not accessed COVID-19 services.The platform has vastly broadened the range of COVID-19 analyses possible, and outputs from BCC19C analyses have been used to create dashboards, support routine reporting and contribute to the peer-reviewed literature. Published manuscripts (total of 15 as of July, 2023) have appeared in high-profile publications, generated significant media attention and informed policy and programming. In this paper, we conducted an analysis to identify sociodemographic and health characteristics associated with receiving SARS-CoV-2 laboratory testing, testing positive, and being fully vaccinated. Other published analyses have compared the relative clinical severity of different variants of concern; quantified the high "real-world" effectiveness of vaccines in addition to the higher risk of myocarditis among younger males following a 2nd dose of an mRNA vaccine; developed and validated an algorithm for identifying long-COVID patients in administrative data; identified a higher rate of diabetes and healthcare utilization among people with long-COVID; and measured the impact of the pandemic on mental health, among other analyses.While the global COVID-19 health emergency has ended, our program of work remains robust. We plan to integrate additional datasets into the surveillance platform to further improve and expand covariate measurement and scope of analyses. Our analyses continue to focus on retrospective studies of various aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as prospective assessment of post-acute COVID-19 conditions and other impacts of the pandemic.

Authors & Co-authors:  Wilton Abdulmenan Chong Becerra Najmul Hussain Harrigan Velásquez García Naveed Sbihi Smolina Taylor Adhikari Zandy Setayeshgar Li Abdia Binka Rasali Rose Coss Flatt Mussavi Rizi Janjua

Study Outcome 

Source Link: Visit source

Statistics
Citations :  BC Centre for Disease Control . British Columbia COVID-19 Dashboard. Available online at: https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/a6f23959a8b14bfa989e3cda29297ded (accessed June 26, 2023).
Authors :  23
Identifiers
Doi : 1248905
SSN : 2296-2565
Study Population
Male,Males
Mesh Terms
Male
Other Terms
COVID-19;administrative data;cohort profile;linked data;population-based data
Study Design
Study Approach
Country of Study
Publication Country
Switzerland