Study to look at how many teachers have caught virus
A study that will seek to determine how many Montreal teachers have been infected with COVID-19 is looking for participants.
Organizers of the study, which will also try to establish the prevalence of pandemic-related emotional and mental health issues among local daycare and school personnel, want to recruit candidates from the same schools and daycares in Beaconsfield and Plateau-mont-royal that participated in an earlier survey examining how many children and adolescents have had SARS-COV-2 infections.
The latest study will also include staff from schools and daycares in Hochelaga-maisonneuve and Montreal North, neighbourhoods that have been hit hard during the pandemic.
Researchers will try to determine how many daycare and school staff members have had COVID-19 and will measure how their antibody levels fluctuate over the next six months.
Participants will be called upon to complete an online questionnaire to collect information on health, socio-demographics, as well as their mental and emotional health. Participants will also be required to submit to a blood test to establish how many of them have antibodies to SARS-COV-2, which would indicate a previous COVID -19 infection.
Participants will be asked about the risks they have faced and the protective measures they have taken at the individual, household, school and community levels.
When a vaccine becomes available to education workers, the study will determine how many teachers agree to be vaccinated and whether antibodies are detected in their blood at several points in time after vaccination.
Results will be used to help with prevention strategies in neighbourhoods, schools and daycares, said Dr. Kate Zinszer, an assistant professor at the Université de Montréal's school of public health.
Similar studies focusing on education workers are being conducted in Ontario and British Columbia. All three surveys are being funded by the federal government's COVID-19 Immunity Task Force.
Recruitment for the Montreal study begins on March 10 and potential candidates can register at encorestudy.ca.