CIHR Funded Studies Support COVID-19 Research Gaps
08/05/2021
As a part of
the continued response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Bruyère researchers are
fulfilling the need to gain a complete understanding of the virus, its variants
of concern, and long-term effects.
With
variants of concern spreading, elderly and frail populations remain at
high-risk. Expanding on the C-19
Immunity Study, a newly funded* project will explore vaccine effectiveness
against SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern in long-term care populations across
multiple provinces by including an additional 2000 participants who are family
members and caregivers to the currently recruited residents.
The team,
which includes Amy Hsu, PhD, Dr. Kumanan Wilson, Dr. Peter Tanuseputro, Anna
Cooper Reed, Dr. Doug Manuel, Heidi Sveistrup, PhD, and Daniel El Kodsi, PhD,
will focus on the association between humoral immunity response,
sociodemographic, health, and long-term care home factors and health outcomes
following vaccination. With this data, the team aims to develop prediction
models of COVID-19 morbidity and mortality in long-term care populations,
yielding a better understanding of vaccines’ effectiveness in protecting the
highly vulnerable residents against the variants of concern.
Increasing
vaccination rates across the country, but notably in health care settings, is a
top priority as these variants of concern continue to spread. Carrie Heer, also
affiliated with St. Joseph’s Health Centre Guelph, and Amy Hsu, PhD are tackling
vaccine hesitancy among workers in long-term care. Their goal is to develop the
VACCINE (VACine Confidence and ImmuNization Education) Checklist using
behavioural science principles to support vaccine confidence and uptake among
health care workers in the sector. The researchers, including Anna Cooper Reed,
Daniel El Kodsi, PhD, Dr. Kumanan Wilson, Vivian Welch, PhD, and Maya Murmann
are assessing existing vaccine education strategies to identify the barriers to
uptake from current strategies to evaluate and tailor strategies for future
educational initiatives.
Though
vaccination rates continue to rise, researchers are also focused on the
long-term effects of the virus. Though health inequities have already been
shown to worsen outcomes of COVID-19, less is known about long-haul COVID. Dr.
Claire Kendall and other Bruyère researchers, Dr. Peter Tanuseputro, Lisa
Boucher, Simone Dahrouge, PhD, Amy Hsu, PhD, and Esther Shoemaker, PhD are
exploring what other social factors and other health conditions might be
interacting with COVID to influence health outcomes. Using health data from
Ontarians who have been diagnosed with COVID, the team will be using AI to look
at the relationship between these factors to better understand how we might
prevent and manage long-haul COVID for diverse and marginalized populations.
The studies,
funded by CIHR, will help provide new and best evidence for policy and health
care stakeholders and support some of the most vulnerable Canadians in the
fight against COVID-19.
*This
project was supported by funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health
Research and Public Health Agency of Canada, through the COVID-19 Immunity Task
Force.