2020_09_28_ICS_estudio_impacto_covid
ICS solicits volunteers for world's largest study on physical and mental impact of Covid-19 pandemic
Gonzalo Arrondo, from group 'Mente-Cerebro', encourages adults and minors with supervision to fill out an online questionnaire that will help design pandemic prevention and intervention programs.
PHOTO: Isabel Solana
The University of Navarra is calling for volunteers to participate through an onlinequestionnaire in the world's largest study on the physical and mental impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. This is the project COH-FIT (Collaborative Outcomes study on Health and Functioning during Infection Times), in which nearly 200 international researchers are collaborating and which aims to collect information from more than 100,000 people on six continents.
Gonzalo Arrondo, from the group 'Mind-Brain' of Institute for Culture and Society (ICS) and professor of School of Education and Psychology, participates as researcher on behalf of this academic center. In addition to him, three other experts from the Hospital Clínic de Barcelona, the Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas August Pi i Sunyer and the Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Marañón are leading the study in Spain.
The survey COH-FIT will be in place throughout the pandemic and for up to one year after the pandemic ends, with the goal to monitor progress. Information is requested anonymously from adults and, with parental consent and financial aid , from adolescents and children six years of age and older.
COH-FIT aims to identify which individuals are at greater and lesser risk of experiencing physical and mental health problems during the pandemic and at different levels of physical distancing measures, and to identify risk and protective factors that will enable the design of prevention and intervention programs for both the current and future pandemics.
"It is very important that many people of all ages participate in this subject of international programs of study , as only in this way can reliable and comparable data be obtained to answer the relevant questions that are currently emerging in relation to the pandemic," says Gonzalo Arrondo.
The results will be presented to the national and international academic community , with the goal to help develop specific interventions for people at especially high risk.
COH-FIT is supported by organisations such as the World Psychiatric Association, the European Network for Mental Illness Prevention and Mental Health Promotion (ECNP Network) and the Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health (ACAMH), among others.