Relationship between In-person Instruction and COVID-19 incidence among University Students: A Prospective Cohort Study

  1. The Campus & Corona-study Team
  2. Atle Fretheim
  3. Martin Flatø
  4. Arnfinn Helleve
  5. Sølvi Helseth
  6. Gro Jamtvedt
  7. Borghild Løyland
  8. Ida Hellum Sandbekken
  9. Alexander Schjøll
  10. Kjetil Telle
  11. Sara Sofie Viksmoen Watle

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Abstract

Whether university teaching on campus with infection control measures in place is associated with higher risk of COVID-19 than online instruction, is unknown. We will assess this by conducting repeated surveys among students at universities and university colleges in Norway, where some instruction is given in-person, and some is provided online (hybrid model). We will ask about the students’ COVID-19 status, and how much in-person and online instruction they are getting. We will estimate the association between in-person instruction and COVID-19-risk using multivariate regression, controlling for likely confounders. We will also assess whether type of instruction is associated with how satisfied the students are with the instruction, their quality of life, and learning outcomes.

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    SciScore for 10.1101/2020.08.30.20182139: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board StatementConsent: The invitation includes a link that directs them to a web-based informed consent-form and questionnaire.
    IRB: The Regional Ethical Committee has assessed and approved the project plan (24 August, REK s0r-0st A, reference number 172155).
    RandomizationAs there is a large information need on the impacts of COVID-19 interventions and a scarcity of relevant studies, we furthermore believe the study can be beneficial even if underpowered and since a randomized assignment of participants was not possible.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power AnalysisPower analysis and sample size: We have carried out a power analysis to estimate the necessary sample size needed to detect differences between students who are offered in-person instruction and students who are offered online instruction.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    No key resources detected.

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: An explicit section about the limitations of the techniques employed in this study was not found. We encourage authors to address study limitations.

    Results from TrialIdentifier: We found the following clinical trial numbers in your paper:

    IdentifierStatusTitle
    NCT04529421Not yet recruitingAssocation Between In-person Instruction and COVID-19 Risk

    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.

    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    About SciScore

    SciScore is an automated tool that is designed to assist expert reviewers by finding and presenting formulaic information scattered throughout a paper in a standard, easy to digest format. SciScore checks for the presence and correctness of RRIDs (research resource identifiers), and for rigor criteria such as sex and investigator blinding. For details on the theoretical underpinning of rigor criteria and the tools shown here, including references cited, please follow this link.

  2. Version published to 10.1101/2020.08.30.20182139v1 on medRxiv