Cargando…

A framework for seroepidemiologic investigations in future pandemics: insights from an evaluation of WHO’s Unity Studies initiative

BACKGROUND: The WHO Unity Studies initiative supports countries, especially low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), in conducting seroepidemiologic studies for rapidly informing responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. Ten generic study protocols were developed which standardized epidemiologic and labo...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Hennessey, Karen, Pezzoli, Lorenzo, Mantel, Carsten
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10187500/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37194007
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12961-023-00973-z
_version_ 1785042748359835648
author Hennessey, Karen
Pezzoli, Lorenzo
Mantel, Carsten
author_facet Hennessey, Karen
Pezzoli, Lorenzo
Mantel, Carsten
author_sort Hennessey, Karen
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: The WHO Unity Studies initiative supports countries, especially low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), in conducting seroepidemiologic studies for rapidly informing responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. Ten generic study protocols were developed which standardized epidemiologic and laboratory methods. WHO provided technical support, serological assays and funding for study implementation. An external evaluation was conducted to assess (1) the usefulness of study findings in guiding response strategies, (2) management and support to conduct studies and (3) capacity built from engagement with the initiative. METHODS: The evaluation focused on the three most frequently used protocols, namely first few cases, household transmission and population-based serosurvey, 66% of 339 studies tracked by WHO. All 158 principal investigators (PIs) with contact information were invited to complete an online survey. A total of 19 PIs (randomly selected within WHO regions), 14 WHO Unity focal points at the country, regional and global levels, 12 WHO global-level stakeholders and eight external partners were invited to be interviewed. Interviews were coded in MAXQDA™, synthesized into findings and cross-verified by a second reviewer. RESULTS: Among 69 (44%) survey respondents, 61 (88%) were from LMICs. Ninety-five percent gave positive feedback on technical support, 87% reported that findings contributed to COVID-19 understanding, 65% to guiding public health and social measures, and 58% to guiding vaccination policy. Survey and interview group responses showed that the main technical barriers to using study findings were study quality, variations in study methods (challenge for meta-analysis), completeness of reporting study details and clarity of communicating findings. Untimely study findings were another barrier, caused by delays in ethical clearance, receipt of serological assays and approval to share findings. There was strong agreement that the initiative created equitable research opportunities, connected expertise and facilitated study implementation. Around 90% of respondents agreed the initiative should continue in the future. CONCLUSIONS: The Unity Studies initiative created a highly valued community of practice, contributed to study implementation and research equity, and serves as a valuable framework for future pandemics. To strengthen this platform, WHO should establish emergency-mode procedures to facilitate timeliness and continue to build capacity to rapidly conduct high-quality studies and communicate findings in a format friendly to decision-makers.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-10187500
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2023
publisher BioMed Central
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-101875002023-05-17 A framework for seroepidemiologic investigations in future pandemics: insights from an evaluation of WHO’s Unity Studies initiative Hennessey, Karen Pezzoli, Lorenzo Mantel, Carsten Health Res Policy Syst Research BACKGROUND: The WHO Unity Studies initiative supports countries, especially low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), in conducting seroepidemiologic studies for rapidly informing responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. Ten generic study protocols were developed which standardized epidemiologic and laboratory methods. WHO provided technical support, serological assays and funding for study implementation. An external evaluation was conducted to assess (1) the usefulness of study findings in guiding response strategies, (2) management and support to conduct studies and (3) capacity built from engagement with the initiative. METHODS: The evaluation focused on the three most frequently used protocols, namely first few cases, household transmission and population-based serosurvey, 66% of 339 studies tracked by WHO. All 158 principal investigators (PIs) with contact information were invited to complete an online survey. A total of 19 PIs (randomly selected within WHO regions), 14 WHO Unity focal points at the country, regional and global levels, 12 WHO global-level stakeholders and eight external partners were invited to be interviewed. Interviews were coded in MAXQDA™, synthesized into findings and cross-verified by a second reviewer. RESULTS: Among 69 (44%) survey respondents, 61 (88%) were from LMICs. Ninety-five percent gave positive feedback on technical support, 87% reported that findings contributed to COVID-19 understanding, 65% to guiding public health and social measures, and 58% to guiding vaccination policy. Survey and interview group responses showed that the main technical barriers to using study findings were study quality, variations in study methods (challenge for meta-analysis), completeness of reporting study details and clarity of communicating findings. Untimely study findings were another barrier, caused by delays in ethical clearance, receipt of serological assays and approval to share findings. There was strong agreement that the initiative created equitable research opportunities, connected expertise and facilitated study implementation. Around 90% of respondents agreed the initiative should continue in the future. CONCLUSIONS: The Unity Studies initiative created a highly valued community of practice, contributed to study implementation and research equity, and serves as a valuable framework for future pandemics. To strengthen this platform, WHO should establish emergency-mode procedures to facilitate timeliness and continue to build capacity to rapidly conduct high-quality studies and communicate findings in a format friendly to decision-makers. BioMed Central 2023-05-16 /pmc/articles/PMC10187500/ /pubmed/37194007 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12961-023-00973-z Text en © The Author(s) 2023 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) ) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.
spellingShingle Research
Hennessey, Karen
Pezzoli, Lorenzo
Mantel, Carsten
A framework for seroepidemiologic investigations in future pandemics: insights from an evaluation of WHO’s Unity Studies initiative
title A framework for seroepidemiologic investigations in future pandemics: insights from an evaluation of WHO’s Unity Studies initiative
title_full A framework for seroepidemiologic investigations in future pandemics: insights from an evaluation of WHO’s Unity Studies initiative
title_fullStr A framework for seroepidemiologic investigations in future pandemics: insights from an evaluation of WHO’s Unity Studies initiative
title_full_unstemmed A framework for seroepidemiologic investigations in future pandemics: insights from an evaluation of WHO’s Unity Studies initiative
title_short A framework for seroepidemiologic investigations in future pandemics: insights from an evaluation of WHO’s Unity Studies initiative
title_sort framework for seroepidemiologic investigations in future pandemics: insights from an evaluation of who’s unity studies initiative
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10187500/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37194007
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12961-023-00973-z
work_keys_str_mv AT hennesseykaren aframeworkforseroepidemiologicinvestigationsinfuturepandemicsinsightsfromanevaluationofwhosunitystudiesinitiative
AT pezzolilorenzo aframeworkforseroepidemiologicinvestigationsinfuturepandemicsinsightsfromanevaluationofwhosunitystudiesinitiative
AT mantelcarsten aframeworkforseroepidemiologicinvestigationsinfuturepandemicsinsightsfromanevaluationofwhosunitystudiesinitiative
AT hennesseykaren frameworkforseroepidemiologicinvestigationsinfuturepandemicsinsightsfromanevaluationofwhosunitystudiesinitiative
AT pezzolilorenzo frameworkforseroepidemiologicinvestigationsinfuturepandemicsinsightsfromanevaluationofwhosunitystudiesinitiative
AT mantelcarsten frameworkforseroepidemiologicinvestigationsinfuturepandemicsinsightsfromanevaluationofwhosunitystudiesinitiative