McMaster Study to Explore COVID-19 Impact on Older Adults

McMaster University is leading a Canada-wide study on COVID-19's effect on aging Canadians as concerns over a second wave of the coronavirus mount, reports the Hamilton Spectator . Canada's federal government has apportioned $4 million to investigate COVID-19 infections in Canadians over the age of 50, who are considered to be at the highest risk for the most severe virus complications. "The point of our study is to understand how many people in this age group . . . were actually truly infected," explained study leader Parminder Raina, the scientific director of the McMaster Institute for Research on Aging. Researchers will collect blood samples and questionnaires from more than 19,000 participants through the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA). Raina expects the study will yield a more accurate picture of the population of older Canadians infected by COVID-19, including asymptomatic individuals. He added that the researchers will seek antibodies in blood samples to determine the total number of people infected. By combining these findings with existing data from the CLSA, Raina said the study will help ascertain what factors cause some individuals to get more sick than others. "We don't know when the vaccine will come," he noted. "Until then, we have to understand how do we design and implement public health measures going forward."