Table of Contents
Covid-19 questionnaires (COVQ)
The Lifelines Covid-19 (COVQ) project consists of a series of additional questionnaires to be filled in by adult Lifelines participants during the Covid-19 pandemic of 2020.
The project is a collaboration between Lifelines, theUniversity Medical Centre Groningen, the University of Groningen and the Aletta Jacobs School of Public Health.
The aim of the project is to assess the possible multifactorial causes of developing serious symptoms in response to an infection with Covid-19, as well as the impact of the pandemic and the associated quarantine on physical and mental health and socio-economic status in the general population.
Protocol
Digital questionnaires were sent out weekly (later: bi-weekly and monthly) to all adult Lifelines participants with a known e-mail address.
COVQ1 and COVQ2 contain “baseline” questions to obtain important current basic characteristics of all respondents.
All follow-up questionnaires (COVQ3 to COVQ12) contain a basic set of questions, complemented with a set of variable additional questions.
COVQ10 was a longer ‘special’ questionnaire. Only some of the basic questions were added. New topics were added about corona adjustments policies, work, holidays and resilience.
Reference paper
- Mc Intyre K et al. (2021) Lifelines COVID-19 cohort: investigating COVID-19 infection and its health and societal impacts in a Dutch population-based cohort. BMJ Open 11(3):e044474.
Other papers from the Lifelines COVID-19 initiative:
- van Blokland IV et al. (2021) Using symptom-based case predictions to identify host genetic factors that contribute to COVID-19 susceptibility. PLoS ONE 16(8): e0255402
- Ballering AV et al. (2022) Persistence of somatic symptoms after COVID-19 in the Netherlands: an observational cohort study. Lancet 400(10350):452-461
- Warmerdam CAR et al. (2022) Increased genetic contribution to wellbeing during the COVID-19 pandemic. PLoS Genet 18(5):e1010135
- Ori, A et al. (2023) Longitudinal analyses of depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation highlight greater prevalence in the northern Dutch population during the COVID-19 lockdowns. J Affect Disord 323:62-70
Timeline & Response
In April 2020, Lifelines started to send out the first questionnaires to ~130,000 adult Lifelines participants. Follow-up questionnaires were send out on a weekly (and later bi-weekly and monthly) basis.
- Questionnaire 1-7: ~130.000 participants were invited
- Questionnaire 8-17: ~110,000 participants were invited
- Questionnaire 18-23: ~65,500 participants were invited (selection: at least 2 previous COVQ questionnaires filled in)
- Questionnaire 24-29: ~50,000 participants were invited (selection: at least 1 COVQ questionaires filled in in 2021, and no “unsubscribe” e-mail sent)
| COVQ | Date | Response | Response rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 30-03 to 23-04-2020 | ~53,000 | 41% |
| 2 | 02-04 to 06-05-2020 | ~51,000 | 39% |
| 3 | 12-04 to 06-05-2020 | ~50,000 | 38% |
| 4 | 16-04 to 13-05-2020 | ~47,000 | 36% |
| 5 | 19-04 to 20-05-2020 | ~45,000 | 35% |
| 6 | 28-04 to 27-05-2020 | ~43,000 | 33% |
| 7 | 15-05 to 29-05-2020 | ~45,000 | 34% |
| 8* | 23-05 to 24-06-2020 | ~38,000 | 34% |
| 9 | 11-06 to 29-06-2020 | ~37,000 | 33% |
| 10 | 07-07 to 29-07-2020 | ~33,000 | 30% |
| 11 | 10-07 to 05-08-2020 | ~35,000 | 32% |
| 12 | 24-07 to 02-09-2020 | ~36,000 | 32% |
| 13 | 08-09 to 30-09-2020 | ~35,000 | 32% |
| 14 | 13-10 to 04-11-2020 | ~34,000 | 31% |
| 15 | 02-11 to 26-11-2020 | ~34,000 | 31% |
| 15b | 15-11 to 10-12-2020 | ~33,000 | 30% |
| 16 | 02-12 to 21-12-2020 | ~31,000 | 28% |
| 16b | 08-12 to 05-01-2021 | ~32,000 | 29% |
| 17 | 05-01 to 08-02-2021 | ~34,000 | 31% |
| 18* | 25-02 to 25-03-2021 | ~32,000 | 49% |
| 19 | 29-03 to 22-04-2021 | ~29,000 | 45% |
| 20 | 26-04 to 20-05-2021 | ~29,000 | 44% |
| 21 | 25-05 to 18-06-2021 | ~29,000 | 45% |
| 22 | 04-07 to 30-07-2021 | ~24,000 | 36% |
| 23 | 11-10 to 04-11-2021 | ~23,000 | 37% |
| 24* | 20-12-21 to 12-01-2022 | ~25,000 | 48% |
| 25 | 28-02 to 24-03-2022 | ~20,000 | 38% |
| 26 | 11-04 to 04-05-2022 | ~20,000 | 40% |
| 27 | 31-05 to 27-06-2022 | ~19,000 | 36% |
| 28 | 11-07 to 03-08-2022 | ~18,000 | 36% |
| 29 | 29-09 to 19-10-2022 | ~21,000 | 42% |
| Number of participants | First 19 questionnaires completed? |
|---|---|
| ~77,000 | 1 of 19 |
| ~66,000 | 2 of 19 |
| ~60,000 | 3 of 19 |
| ~55,000 | 4 of 19 |
| ~51,000 | 5 of 19 |
| ~48,000 | 6 of 19 |
| ~45,000 | 7 of 19 |
| ~42,000 | 8 of 19 |
| ~40,000 | 9 of 19 |
| ~37,500 | 10 of 19 |
| ~35,500 | 11 of 19 |
| ~33,000 | 12 of 19 |
| ~31,000 | 13 of 19 |
| ~28,500 | 14 of 19 |
| ~26,500 | 15 of 19 |
| ~24,000 | 16 of 19 |
| ~21,000 | 17 of 19 |
| ~17,000 | 18 of 19 |
| ~11,000 | 19 of 19 |
Variables
COVQ assessed variables in the following corona-specific subsections:
-
- Work & income (Covid-19) (incl. work situation and job loss of participants and family members)
-
- Covid-19 infection (infection with Covid-19 itself)
- Chronic diseases (Covid-19) (participant's history of chronic diseases)
- Symptoms (Covid-19) (all types of symptoms suffered during the Corona crisis)
-
- Lifestyle (Covid-19) (incl. diet, activity, smoking, alcohol use, and compliance with Covid-measures)
- Quarantine (Covid-19) (compliance with quarantine/self-isolation guidelines)
-
- Medication (Covid-19) (extensive questionnaire on medication use during the corona crisis)
- Vaccination (Covid-19) (questions about vaccination with the covid-19 vaccins)
-
- Mental health (Covid-19) (items derived from the MINI) + memory
- Social functioning (Covid-19) (incl. social isolation, connection, feelings about society)
-
- Wellbeing (Covid-19) (quality of life during the corona crisis)
In addition, various variables were collected in general subsections:
- Demographics: Personal data (1 item on response date)
- Demographics: Family composition (1 item on pregnancy)
- Demographics: Household composition (children living at home)
- Demographics: Education (home-schooling)
- Diseases & symptoms: Infectious diseases (participant's history of infectious diseases)
- Medical treatment: Treatment (general) (postponement of medical treatments due to the corona crisis)
- Physical state: Anthropometry (Self-reported) (body weight)
