Baylor recruiting participants for COVID-19 prevalence study

Houston, TX - Oct 21, 2020

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Baylor College of Medicine is recruiting participants for a study to determine the prevalence of COVID-19 in the Houston area. The study is part of a nationwide initiative called the Community Prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 study (COMPASS) led by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) to determine how COVID-19 is transmitted in communities.

Participants will be given a COVID-19 nasal swab test to assess for current infection and will be asked to provide a blood sample for an antibody test to determine if they were previously infected. COVID-19 test results will be returned within 48 hours. All participants also will complete a short survey answering questions about demographics and personal experience with COVID-19 mitigation measures. Participants will receive a gift card for their participation.

“Learning how many people have already been infected with COVID-19 will allow us to understand the potential risks that contribute to further development of the pandemic and the impact that vaccination and improvements in therapy will have on our populations,” said Dr. Chris Amos, principal investigator of the Baylor study, director of Baylor’s Institute for Clinical and Translational Research and associate director of population and quantitative science at the Dan L Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center at Baylor.

In addition to prevalence, researchers also will study demographic and social risk factors and medical co-morbidities associated with infection. Data collected in the study will be used to inform mathematical models of disease progression and projections of future disease risk.

COMPASS organizers will recruit a diverse group of participants that reflects the ethnic, age and gender make-up of the U.S. population. Nationwide, the study will collect samples from about 70,000 individuals, with about 4,000 of those participants coming from the Houston area. Participants will be recruited at community gathering spots like grocery stores, churches and parks as well as nursing homes and healthcare centers. In order to ensure selected individuals are similar to their community, the study will set up facilities at the different sites and randomly ask individuals to participate in testing and sample collection.

The study is part of a $20 million initiative by the National Institutes of Health to understand the prevalence of COVID-19 infection. Results will allow researchers to estimate how many members of the Houston population have already been infected by COVID-19 and determine the current burden of COVID-19 infection.

The study will be recruiting participants through July 31, 2021. For the month of July, the study will recruit at the following sites in Houston: