Seroprevalence of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies among school and daycare children and personnel: protocol for a cohort study in Montreal, Canada
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Abstract
Further evidence is needed to understand the contribution of schools and daycares for the spread of COVID-19 in the context of diverse transmission dynamics and continually evolving public health interventions. The Enfants et COVID-19: Étude de séroprévalence (EnCORE) study will estimate the seroprevalence and seroconversion of SARS-CoV-2 among school and daycare children and personnel. In addition, the study will examine associations between seroprevalence and sociodemographic characteristics and reported COVID-19 symptoms and tests, and investigates changes in health, lifestyle and well-being outcomes.
Methods and analysis
This study includes children and personnel from 62 schools and daycares in four neighbourhoods in Montreal, Canada. All children aged 2–17 years attending one of the participating schools or daycares and their parents are invited to participate, as well as a sample of personnel members. Participants respond to brief questionnaires and provide blood samples, collected via dried blood spot, at baseline (October 2020–March 2021) and follow-up (May–June 2021). Questionnaires include sociodemographic and household characteristics, reported COVID-19 symptoms and tests, potential COVID-19 risk factors and prevention efforts and health and lifestyle information. Logistic regression using generalised estimating equations will be used to estimate seroprevalence and seroconversion, accounting for school-level clustering.
Ethics and dissemination
This study was approved by the research ethics boards of the Université de Montréal (CERSES) and the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Sainte-Justine. Results will contribute to our knowledge about SARS-CoV-2 transmission in schools and daycares and will be made available to study participants and their families, school and public health decision-makers and the research community.
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SciScore for 10.1101/2021.04.14.21255499: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Institutional Review Board Statement Consent: Children and personnel with health conditions that preclude participation in the study are excluded, as well as children whose parent or legal guardian (henceforth referred to as parent) is unable to give informed consent. Randomization Within each of the four neighbourhoods, schools and daycares were selected randomly by the research team followed by subsequent discussions with the school boards. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Sex as a biological variable not 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 …
SciScore for 10.1101/2021.04.14.21255499: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Institutional Review Board Statement Consent: Children and personnel with health conditions that preclude participation in the study are excluded, as well as children whose parent or legal guardian (henceforth referred to as parent) is unable to give informed consent. Randomization Within each of the four neighbourhoods, schools and daycares were selected randomly by the research team followed by subsequent discussions with the school boards. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Sex as a biological variable not 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: 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.
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