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SABS-TILDA: SARS-CoV-2 specific AntiBodieS in The Irish LongituDinal Study on Ageing (TILDA): an opportunity to assess COVID-19 rates and phenotypes in older adults in Ireland

COVID-19 mortality rates in older adults are devastating. There is an urgent need to document and understand prevalence of COVID-19 in older adults in Ireland. We hypothesise that determining COVID-19 prevalence and relating COVID-19 disease experience with clinically relevant phenotypic data, we can reveal the “who and why” of COVID-19 in older people.
To produce robust national data rapidly, we will utilise The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA), a nationally representative study operational since 2009 that collects >10,000 health, social and economic parameters, and linked biosamples, every two years on 8,175 adults aged 50+. There is wealth of COVID-19 relevant parameters already within TILDA, such as extensive demographic, morbidity, biomarker, medication and vaccination history data.
Our first objective is to determine COVID-19 prevalence in older adults by measuring SARS-CoV-2 specific antibodies in all participants in the next TILDA healthwave, scheduled for immediate roll-out in 2020, delivering:
Deliverable 1: Nationally representative rates of SARS-CoV-2 infection in older Irish adults; including breakdown across important demographic information such as age range, sex, socioeconomic background, vaccination history, medication, lifestyle factors etc.
Deliverable 2: Assessment of asymptomatic infection rates in older adults in Ireland
Deliverable 3: Assessment of SARS-CoV-2 antibody levels with COVID-19 experience (e.g. mild vs severe disease)
Our second objective, to assess associations between COVID-19 disease and the Immunobiography, is a linked, added-value objective delivering:
Deliverable 4: COVID-19 relevant cellular pathways dysregulated in older people, thus informing novel targets for therapeutic intervention
Deliverable 5: COVID-19 risk prediction, through linkage of infection rates with available data on immune-related biomarkers and multi-morbidity data
This proposal will advance understanding of disease transmission, progression and support tailored diagnostics. The findings will rapidly deliver nationally representative rates of COVID-19 prevalence in older adults, whilst also revealing reasons as to why older people are disproportionally experiencing COVID-19 disease.