After applying for and receiving $ 75,000 in grant funding from the Children’ s Hospital Colorado Research Institute, they’ ve added a statistician, two additional professional research assistants, and several more students and pediatric residents.
ANALYZING THE DATA
With databasing comes the ability to see information collectively, making it easier to observe patterns.
“ We immediately saw a Hispanic and Latino disparity in Colorado kids,” says Dr. Abuogi.“ It’ s changed a little over time, but at one point, two-thirds of kids who were hospitalized with COVID-19 were identifying as Hispanic versus non-Hispanic. That was way out of proportion for what Children’ s Colorado normally sees.”
That finding was the catalyst for an expansion of The CCC Study to explore factors associated with that disparity. Through phone surveys and focus groups— both with Hispanic and non-Hispanic families— the team is working to gain a better understanding of the risk factors and challenges related to following COVID-19 prevention approaches. The effort could lead to the creation of an intervention plan to help reduce the risk of COVID-19 and help with vaccine uptake when the time comes.
“ We also went back and added some fields we realized would be important for geocoding, like zip code and county,” says Dr. Abuogi.“ That may help us understand more about how neighborhood characteristics such as socioeconomic status, pollution exposure and availability of public transport impact COVID-19 in children.”
Also on the team’ s radar is exploring components including language, primary insurance and obesity— and even whether there are patterns in positive cases related to school openings and closures or remote and non-remote learning options.
ANSWERS IN REAL TIME
All in all, there are 429 fields the database has the ability to capture, which makes it an extremely valuable resource for anyone seeking answers related to how COVID-19 is affecting kids and how that information can be applied to care.
“ We receive at least one request per week to share our data from groups across the Anschutz Medical Campus,” says Dr. Smith-Anderson.
One such request was made by the Children’ s Colorado scientific advisory council— a group of multidisciplinary subspecialists who evaluate the latest information on COVID-19 from around the world and influence the hospital’ s care policies. The council was weighing how to introduce a new monoclonal antibody for COVID-19 patients with underlying medical conditions.
“ We anticipate this is going to be one of the largest databases of its kind in the country, producing key insights on how COVID-19 affects kids.”
LISA ABUOGI, MD, MS
“ They wanted to see the number of kids over the age of 12 who’ d been diagnosed with COVID-19 and had symptoms,” she says.“ And of those with symptoms, how many had been admitted, how many needed respiratory support and how many had underlying medical conditions.”
Dr. Smith-Anderson and team were able to provide all of those data quickly, allowing the council to make informed decisions on offering the medication and how much of it they might need.
EXPANDING THE SCOPE
Although Children’ s Colorado captures much of the pediatric patient population from Colorado and some surrounding states, it’ s not a complete picture of every child in Colorado who’ s been diagnosed with COVID-19. For the rest, Drs. Abuogi and Smith- Anderson have partnered with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, or CDPHE.
CDPHE is the health umbrella for the state— the organization to which local health departments and hospitals are required to report case numbers, contact tracing and other information.
“ We have a data-sharing agreement in place,” says Dr. Abuogi.“ CDPHE has mirrored our database, and they’ re inputting the same information on their end. Eventually, we’ ll merge our two data sets. We anticipate this is going to be one of the largest databases of its kind in the country, producing key insights on how COVID-19 affects kids.”
Between The CCC Study itself and the external requests for subsets of data, the database continually serves a variety of efforts working to inform the prevention and treatment of COVID-19 in children. •
To contact The CCC Study investigators, email CCCStudy @ childrenscolorado. org.
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