EXCEED – Extended Cohort for E-health, Environment and DNA
Principal Investigator: Martin Tobin
EXCEED has been looking at the causes of long-term health conditions by collecting information about genes and lifestyle. More than 10,000 people have already taken part.
We now aim to understand why some people develop more severe COVID-19 than others, and the impact of the pandemic on long-term conditions. This will help develop new ways to prevent or treat COVID-19 and long-term conditions during and after the pandemic. Minority ethnic and migrant communities have had higher rates of COVID-19 hospital admissions. To understand why this is happening we especially encourage volunteers to join us from these communities.
If you choose to take part we will ask you to complete short questionnaires about your health, whether you have had symptoms of COVID-19, and other ways the pandemic may have affected you. These can be done online.
With your consent we will access your health records and we may send you a saliva sample collection kit, or use ‘left over’ samples from blood tests done at the hospital or by your GP. This allows us to study your health and DNA. In the future, we may also send a kit to test whether you have had the virus that causes COVID-19, if this is feasible.
More information and to register to be part of EXCEED: www.exceed.org.uk