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Study Description

Adverse effects of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID19) pandemic on US society, health, and economy are widespread. The Collaborative Cohort of Cohorts for COVID-19 Research (C4R) aims to advance our knowledge on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. C4R is a diverse national prospective study comprising 14 long-standing prospective cohort studies and over 49,000 participants with extensive pre-COVID-19 phenotype data. C4R links pre-pandemic data on clinical and subclinical diseases and their risk factors, including behavior, cognition, biomarkers, and social determinants of health, to information on severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection and acute and post-acute COVID-related illness. Ascertainment of COVID-19 infection occurs via standardized questionnaires, adjudication of COVID-related hospitalizations and deaths, and SARS-CoV-2 serosurvey via dried blood spot cards. C4R is investigating the following research questions: 1) how pre-existing health conditions affect risk of severe or prolonged COVID-19 related illness; 2) how SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 illness affect long-term health; and 3) how the pandemic has affected health-related behaviors and non-COVID health outcomes. This resource will allow evaluation of risk and resilience factors for COVID-19 severity and long-term health effects.

Cohort Description

The Mediators of Atherosclerosis in South Asians Living in America (MASALA) study is a prospective cohort of South Asians that aims to identify risk factors for heart disease in a large, growing Asian American subgroup. MASALA enrolled 906 South Asians in 2010-2013 and then added a new wave of 258 South Asian participants from 2017-2018, for a full cohort size of 1,164.

Data Being Submitted

  • Wave 1 questionnaire data includes 3967 variables for up to 431 MASALA participants in C4R.
  • Wave 2 questionnaire data includes 448 variables for up to 313 MASALA participants in C4R.
  • Dried Blood Spot/Serosurvey data includes 7 variables for up to 248 MASALA participants in C4R.
  • Derived data includes 43 variables for up to 528 MASALA participants in C4R.
  • Phenotype data includes 113 variables for up to 429 MASALA participants in C4R.

Authorized Access
Publicly Available Data
  Link to other NCBI resources related to this study
Study Inclusion/Exclusion Criteria

Inclusion Criteria:

  • South Asian ancestry defined by having at least 3 grandparents born in one of the following countries: India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, or Sri Lanka
  • Age between 40 and 84 years.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Physician diagnosed heart attack, stroke or transient ischemic attack (TIA), heart failure, or angina (or use of nitroglycerin)
  • Current atrial fibrillation
  • Past history of cardiovascular procedures (coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery, angioplasty, valve replacement, pacemaker or defibrillator implantation, or any surgery on the heart or arteries)
  • Active treatment for cancer
  • Life expectancy less than 5 years due to serious medical illness
  • Impaired cognitive ability as judged by the reviewer
  • Plans to move out of the study region in next 5 years
  • Weight greater than 300 pounds
  • Living in a nursing home or on a waiting list
  • Unable to speak/read/write English, Hindi, Urdu, or Bangla

Selected Publications
Diseases/Traits Related to Study (MeSH terms)
Authorized Data Access Requests
See articles in PMC citing this study accession
Study Attribution
  • Principal Investigator
    • Elizabeth C. Oelsner, MD, MPH. Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, NY, USA.
  • Co-Principal Investigator
    • R. Graham Barr, MD, DrPH. Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, NY, USA.
  • Co-Investigator
    • Pallavi Balte, MBBS, MPH, PhD. Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, NY, USA.
  • Cohort Principal Investigators
    • Alka Kanaya, MD. University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.
    • Namratha Kandula, MD. Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, USA.
  • Data Manager
    • Mike Schembri. University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.