General introduction 33 1 STROBE Checklist Criterion Specific recommendation RECoVERED Cohort Study Participants Give the eligibility criteria, and the sources and methods of selection of participants. Describe methods of follow-up • Inclusion criteria: Age 16-85 years, living in Amsterdam-Amstelland region, sufficient understanding of Dutch or English, laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection • Exclusion criteria: Residing in a care home, having a psychiatric condition that would interfere with study procedures • Sources: Non-hospitalised participants were randomly selected from SARSCoV-2 notification data to the PHSA and contacted by telephone by trained study staff, hospitalised participants were approached on the COVID-19 ward of the AUMC (location AMC) and visited on the ward by trained study staff Variables Clearly define all outcomes, exposures, predictors, potential confounders, and effect modifiers. Give diagnostic criteria, if applicable • Exposures/predictors: We collected a wide array of socio-demographic, clinical and COVID-19-related characteristics during the first month of follow-up • Outcomes: Numerous clinical, immunological and psycho-social outcomes were collected during followup (Figure 1.5), not all of which will be presented in this thesis • Diagnostic criteria: We defined ‘long COVID’ according to the WHO definition, briefly: the presence of at least one persistent symptom 3 months after infection, lasting for at least 2 months, and not explained by an alternative cause Study size Explain how the study size was arrived at • In the absence of detailed knowledge about COVID-19 and its sequelae upon setting up the study, the study size of approximately 300 participants was chosen primarily due to practical reasons; no power calculations were conducted Quantitative variables Explain how quantitative variables were handled in the analyses. If applicable, describe which groupings were chosen and why • Clinical quantitative data entered into the database were bound by plausible limits • In each study, we grouped participants according to the severity of initial COVID-19 (according to WHO clinical criteria), alongside other analysis-specific groupings Results Participants Report numbers of individuals at each stage of study—e.g., numbers potentially eligible, examined for eligibility, confirmed eligible, included in the study, completing follow-up, and analysed A total of 349 participants were enrolled in the RECoVERED study, of whom 18 were lost to follow-up within the first month of followup. Flow diagrams of participants completing consequent study visits are presented per study. * Analysis-specific items of the STROBE checklist in the Methods, Results and Discussion are discussed in the individual chapters of this thesis.
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