COVID-19 Study
Participating Sites and National Principal Investigator
Dr. Caroline Quach-Thanh
British Columbia
BC Children’s Hospital (Vancouver)
Alberta
Alberta Children’s Hospital (Calgary)
Stollery Children’s Hospital (Edmonton)
Saskatchewan
Jim Pattison Children’s Hospital (Saskatoon)
Manitoba
The Children’s Hospital of Winnipeg
Ontario
Children's Hospital London Health Sciences Centre (London)
McMaster Children’s Hospital (Hamilton)
The Hospital for Sick Children (Toronto)
Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (Ottawa)
Kingston Health Sciences Centre (Kingston)
Quebec
CHU Sainte-Justine (Montreal)
Montreal Children’s Hospital
CHU de Sherbrooke (Sherbrooke)
CHU de Quebec l‘Universite de Laval (Quebec City)
Nova Scotia
IWK Health Centre (Halifax)
Newfoundland
Janeway Children’s Health and Rehabilitation Centre (St. John’s)
What Do We Want To Know?
What are the acute and long-term outcomes of the COVID-19 infection and vaccinations in children?
How Are We Doing It?
Families will be asked if they would like to join the study while in the hospital. During the study, information will be collected from participating children’s medical charts, such as vaccination records, test results, and hospital records. Families will fill out questionnaires about health, quality of life, family daily life, and mental health 4-5 times over one year.
When Will I Be Needed?
What Specific Data Are We Collecting?
If you're interested in learning about the specific data we're collecting for this study, please visit the Maelstrom website.
How Is The Study Going?
Our study is currently in progress with recruitment ending in June 2024 – once complete families will have up until March 2025 to finish their follow-ups. Once data is analyzed in 2026, we will share a summary of the results with POPCORN participants!
See below a graph of the current participants in this study:
Figure Description: This graph shows the current number of participants in the COVID Cohort Study. The horizontal line shows how many participants are enrolled from each recruiting hospital in this study and the vertical line shows the recruiting hospital.
CWBC - BC Children’s Hospital
ACH - Alberta Children’s Hospital
SCH - Stollery Children’s Hospital
JPCH - Jim Pattison Children’s Hospital
CHRIM - HSC Winnipeg Children’s Hospital
LHSC - Children’s Hospital – London Health Sciences Centre
MCH - McMaster Children’s Hospital
SICKKIDS - The Hospital for Sick Children
CHEO - Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario
KHSC - Kingston Health Sciences Centre
CHUSJ - CHU Sainte-Justine
HME - Montreal Children’s Hospital
CHUSB - CHU de Sherbrooke
CHUL - CHU de Québec l’Université Laval
IWK - IWK Health Centre
JCH - Janeway Children’s Hospital
Who Can Participate?
About 6,400 children and their families will take part in this study across Canada. POPCORN will invite children less than 18 years of age who came to the hospital recently and are being tested either for a COVID-19 infection or a rare complication sometimes associated with COVID-19 infection or a rare complication, such as MIS-C.
Biosample Sub-Study
In this study, blood samples will be collected from patients with confirmed MIS-C, myocarditis, and pericarditis following COVID-19 vaccination or infection, as well as from controls. These samples will be used in national and international research into the causes and risk factors of adverse events following vaccination and MIS-C.
When Will My Blood Be Taken?
This biosample sub-study timeline shows the different timepoints of the sub-study.
Additional Sub-Studies
POPCORN researchers are working together to look at the data from the COVID-19 Study. They will check the data to make sure it is correct and makes sense. This is called data cleaning. After the data is cleaned, the team can study it and write about what they find.
Below are some smaller studies that will use the COVID-19 Study data to answer special research questions!
COVID-19 Cohort Description
The goal of this study is to describe the characteristics of both COVID-19 positive and COVID-19 negative participants when they joined the study. This includes things like:
- Their background (for example, age and ethnicity)
- Any health conditions they already had
- Their symptoms during their hospital visit
- How serious their illness was
The team will also compare these characteristics between children who had COVID-19 and those who did not.
PICU Ventilation Study
There is not much information about how children receive breathing support in pediatric intensive care units (PICUs) across Canada. Breathing supports are used to help children who are having trouble breathing.
This study will look at:
- The types of breathing support used
- How long children needed the support
- How well the support worked
Researchers will compare these things between COVID-19 positive and COVID-19 negative children who were admitted to the PICU with breathing problems.
Vaccine Safety Study
N/A
Image of science/lab equipment