The CHRIS COVID-19 study started in July 2020 thanks to the Institute of Biomedicine of Eurac Research and the Health Authority of South Tyrol. Now the protocol used in the study, has been published in the journal Pathogens and Global Health to share with the scientific community the details of the study, the background and the methods used in data collection.

The CHRIS COVID-19 study is an extension of the CHRIS population study: active in the Vinschgau Valley for over ten years, it has succeeded in clinically, molecularly and genetically characterizing more than 13,000 adult participants. Over the course of a decade, information on the lifestyle and health status of each participant was collected by taking blood, urine and DNA samples, which are stored in the CHRIS biobank and available for further investigation.

Based on this pre-existing longitudinal study, it was possible to set up a sub-study focused on the spread of the new coronavirus respondig to an unprecedented health emergency. CHRIS COVID-19 is a prospective study with three main objectives:

1. estimate the incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infections;
2. perform a general screening of participants and their families, through the administration of questionnaires on health status, on the presence of symptoms compatible with COVID-19, on previous therapies or diseases, on lifestyle and, subsequently, also on vaccination status;
3. prospectively monitor the immune response of infected participants.

Born from a collaboration between researchers and local communities, the CHRIS COVID-19 study aims to generate knowledge on the epidemiological, molecular and genetic characterization factors of COVID-19 and its long-term effects.

The full study protocol is available at this link: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/20477724.2021.1978225