COVID-19: Impact on the health and wellbeing of ex-serving personnel (Veterans-CHECK) protocol paper

  1. Marie-Louise Sharp
  2. Danai Serfioti
  3. Margaret Jones
  4. Howard Burdett
  5. David Pernet
  6. Lisa Hull
  7. Dominic Murphy
  8. Sharon Stevelink
  9. Simon Wessely
  10. Nicola T Fear

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Abstract

Introduction

We will use a sub-sample of a current longitudinal study to investigate the impact of COVID-19 on the health and wellbeing of ex-service personnel in the UK. The study will provide evidence for the UK Office of Veterans’ Affairs (OVA), UK stakeholders supporting the ex-service community, and evidence to inform our international counterparts working with ex-service communities in allied countries regarding the impact of COVID-19 on the health and wellbeing of ex-service personnel.

Methods and analysis

Participants were eligible to participate if they lived in the UK, had Regular service history from the UK Armed Forces and had previously completed the King’s Centre for Military Health Research (KCMHR) Health and Wellbeing survey between 2014–2016. Participants who met these criteria were recruited through email to take part in an online questionnaire. The study provides additional quantitative longitudinal data on this sub-sample. Data are being collected June 2020-September 2020. Specific measures are used to capture participants’ COVID-19 experiences, health and wellbeing status and lifestyle behaviours. Other key topics will include questions regarding the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on employment, finances, volunteering, charitable giving, accommodation and living arrangements, help-seeking behaviours, as well as any potential positive changes during this period.

Ethics and Dissemination

Ethical approval has been gained from King’s College London Research Ethics Committee (Ref: HR-19/20–18626). Participants were provided with information and agreed to a series of consent statements before enrolment. Data are kept on secure servers with access to personally identifiable information limited. Findings will be disseminated to the OVA, UK ex-service stakeholders and international research institutions through stakeholder meetings, project reports and scientific publications.

Strengths and limitations of this study

  • Strengths include recruitment from a population where underlying characteristics are known, and longitudinal data is held on their health and wellbeing.

  • There has been rapid roll-out of the survey to ensure relevance for participants’ COVID-19 experiences and use of validated measures for mental health and wellbeing outcomes.

  • Study limitations include recruitment from a specific cohort; hence the study cannot comment on the impact of COVID-19 in other veteran populations.

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  1. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2020.09.02.20186577: (What is this?)

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

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board StatementConsent: Data storage and security: Individuals who participate will be automatically assigned an ID number once their informed consent is obtained, allowing their online survey data to be held pseudonymously.
    IRB: Ethical and safety considerations: Ethical approval has been gained from King’s College London Research Ethics Committee (Ref: HR-19/20–18626).
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    Software and Algorithms
    SentencesResources
    Online survey responses will be collected using REDCap survey software which will be hosted by King’s College London, on servers located in the UK.
    REDCap
    suggested: (REDCap, RRID:SCR_003445)

    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: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

    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 10.1101/2020.09.02.20186577v2 on medRxiv
  3. Version published to 10.1101/2020.09.02.20186577v1 on medRxiv