The UMCG and the University of Groningen have launched the Corona Barometer. On coronabarometer.nl they give The Netherlands insight into the first results of the Lifelines Corona research. In this large scale research, 135.000 people receive a weekly corona questionnaire. Until now, over 160.000 questionnaires have been filled in. This proves that 1 in 4 respondents up to 30 years of age who live alone, feels lonely in the current corona crisis. Besides this, more respondents worry that a family member might get ill, than that they themselves might get ill.
Looking for risk factors
Initiator and professor Lude Franke stresses the importance of this research: Thanks to this research and the participation of so many people we are able to get a clear image of both the illness COVID-19 and the risk factors for serious disease symptoms. We would like to find out why some people get seriously ill from COVID-19, whereas others hardly have any complaints. We now see that relatively a lot of participants have had symptoms of, but the number of proven COVID-19 patients is low: only 0,8%. The Corona Barometer also shows that 1 out of 10 respondents between 18 and 40 years old indicate they think themselves that they have had a corona infection, but who are not diagnosed or tested.”
Psychological consequences
The research also focuses on the psychological consequences of the corona crisis. Professor dr. Jochen Mierau, Scientific director of the Aletta Jacobs School of Public Health, looks into this theme: “With this lockdown we protect ourselves from the virus, but at the same time a lot of psychological pressure emerges with a lot of people. Who experiences this pressure the most and which health and environmental factors play a part in this? That is relevant to policy makers all over the world. Relevant insights from this research are therefore immediately shared through the Corona Barometer, where the data are weekly updated and expanded. "In this way, the Netherlands stay informed and everybody can follow the development the upcoming weeks and months."
Initiative
The Corona Barometer is an idea of CLEVER°FRANKE and is established in cooperation with the department of Genetics of the UMCG. The Lifelines Corona research is a combined initiative of the UMCG, the University of Groningen, the Aletta Jacobs School of Public Health and Lifelines.
It is also enabled by the Universiteit van het Noorden (university of the North), a collective of northern knowledge institutions.
Source article: umcg.nl
Pictures: coronabarometer.nl
