Research project: Retrospective Survey of Prevention, Treatment, Occurrence and Outcomes of Covid-19 in the community (RTO-Covid-19)

Why are we doing the survey?

Covid-19 is new, so we need to learn from everyone’s experiences. There are so many things we need to understand, for example:

• Why do some people develop serious illness while others don’t?
• Which preventive measures work - and which don’t?
• Which treatments work - and which don’t?

What does it involve?

We are collecting the experiences of thousands of people from many countries across the globe which have been affected by Covid-19. Anyone can take part in the survey, whether or not they became ill with Covid-19. The questions take 10-20 minutes to complete. We are also asking participants to provide us with their email address so that we can ask them a few more questions about new or ongoing symptoms three months later. Although this is optional, understanding how peoples’ symptoms change over time is a very powerful way of understanding the illness better. Providing an email address will also allow us to enter participants into a cash prize draw and send them a summary of the results when they are available.

What is the likely impact of this study?

This study will help us to answer several questions about Covid-19, including:

• What did people do to avoid Covid-19? How did this affect their risk of becoming ill?
• What treatments did people use when they were ill? Did this affect how ill they became?
• How many people have developed long-lasting symptoms following Covid-19? Which symptoms are most common? Can we predict who will experience longer-term symptoms?
• How do behaviours and treatments differ between different countries? What are the potential implications of this?

The results of the study will be published in scientific publications, sent to participants who provide their email address, published online, and sent to key stakeholders.

How can people take part?

Please encourage as many people as possible to take part. Anyone who is able to provide consent can take part by going to the online survey.

University of Southampton Investigators:

• Dr Merlin Willcox, School of Primary Care, Population Sciences and Medical Education
• Prof Nick Francis, School of Primary Care, Population Sciences and Medical Education
• Ms Jennifer Bostock (PPI member)
• Assoc Prof Adam Geraghty, School of Primary Care, Population Sciences and Medical Education
• Dr Xiao-Yang Hu, School of Primary Care, Population Sciences and Medical Education
• Dr Mark Lown, School of Primary Care, Population Sciences and Medical Education
• Prof Paul Little, School of Primary Care, Population Sciences and Medical Education
• Prof Michael Moore, School of Primary Care, Population Sciences and Medical Education
• Assoc Prof Beth Stuart, School of Primary Care, Population Sciences and Medical Education
• Prof Lucy Yardley, Department of Psychology

China

• Ms Chunli Lu, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine

South Korea

• Prof. Tae Hun Kim (KMD, PhD), Kyunghee University
• Ms. Lin Ang, Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine

Funder: School of Primary Care Research, NIHR, Antenna Foundation, Switzerland

Duration: 10 months
Start date: July 2020 End date: March 2021
Contact: RTOcovid19@soton.ac.uk

Website for RTO-Covid 19

Collaborators: