CovGenAir

The recently discovered virus “Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome CoronaVirus 2” (SARS-CoV-2) is the pathogenic agent of COVID-19. Several risk factors were reported to contribute to COVID-19 severity, such as age, sex, socio-economic status, ethnicity and pre-existing medical conditions. It is assumed that air pollution also contributes to the spread of SARS-CoV-2 and that it influences the course of the infection. Moreover, genetic risk variants potentially represent important effect modifiers of the association of air pollution with cardio-metabolic and respiratory health and might provide insights into the underlying mechanisms.

1. To determine the prevalence of a SARS-CoV-2 infection and symptoms in our cohorts within different age and risk groups.

2. To disentangle the association between environmental exposures and a SARS-CoV-2 infection.

3. To identify susceptible subgroups in the population who might be particularly vulnerable for an infection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

4. To investigate the long-term health effects of an infection with SARS-CoV-2 in our study population.

Participants from three longitudinal population-based cohort studies from Germany aging 20-95 years:

• SALIA (Study on the influence of air pollution, lung function, inflammation and aging)

• KORA (Cooperative Health Research in the Augsburg Region) and

• the birth-corhorts
  GINIplus (German Infant Study on the influence of Nutrition Intervention PLUS environmental and genetic influences on allergy development) and
  LISA (Influence of life-style factors on the development of the immune system and allergies in East and West Germany)

Data on long-term health development and environmental exposure as well as genome-wide data are already available for all study participants. They are invited for a comprehensive physical re-examination to determine the seroprevalence status and long-term health consequences of SARS-CoV-2 infections. They also participate in health monitoring of COVID-19 associated symptoms via a weekly questionnaire over a period up to 24 weeks.

Deutsche Forschungsgesellschaft (DFG), project number 458527737 (funding period: 2021-2024)

• Helmholtz Zentrum München, Institute of Epidemiology, Research Group “Environmental risks”: Dr. Alexandra Schneider, Dr. Ute Kraus, Sarah Wagner

• Helmholtz Zentrum München, Institute of Epidemiology, Research Group “Allergic Disease Epidemiology“: Dr. Marie Standl, Sarah Wagner

• IUF-Leibniz Research Institute for Environmental Medicine, Department of Epidemiology: Dr. Tamara Schikowski

• Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, IBE-Chair of Epidemiology: Prof. Dr. Annette Peters