Collaborative Cohort of Cohorts for COVID-19 Research (C4R): Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study (ARIC)

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 Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study began in the mid-1980s with the initial aims being to describe the presence of subclinical atherosclerosis, the progression of atherosclerosis to clinical cardiovascular disease (CVD), and the association of novel risk factors with CVD. ARIC recruited its cohort of men and women aged 45-64 in 1987-89 from four communities (Forsyth County, NC; Jackson, MS; suburban Minneapolis, MN; and Washington County, MD). As of 2020, ARIC counts over 6,000 participants.

Data Submitted

Wave 1 questionnaire data includes 397 variables for up to 5326 ARIC participants in C4R.
Wave 2 questionnaire data includes 448 variables for up to 4619 ARIC participants in C4R.
Dried Blood Spot/Serosurvey data includes 7 variables for up to 2083 ARIC participants in C4R.
Derived data includes 43 variables for up to 5449 ARIC participants in C4R.
Phenotype data includes 113 variables for up to 5449 ARIC participants in C4R.

• Study Weblinks:
  • C4R:https://c4r-nih.org/
  • ARIC:https://sites.cscc.unc.edu/aric/desc_pub
• Study Design:
  • Prospective Longitudinal Cohort
• Study Type:
  • Longitudinal Cohort
• Total number of consented subjects: 6523
• Subject Sample Telemetry Report (SSTR)

• BioProject
• PubMed
• MeSH
• PMC
• Clinical Trials
  • NCT00005131

Please see phs000280.

Please see phs000280.

• Primary Phenotype: COVID-19
• SARS-CoV-2
• COVID-19 Serological Testing
• COVID-19 Testing
• COVID-19 Vaccines

• N/A

• 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 Investigator
  • Josef Coresh, MD, PhD. Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Medicine, Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA.
  • Ryan Demmer, PhD. University of Minnesota School of Public Health, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
• Data Manager
  • Lisa Reeves, MSc. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.