TY - JOUR AU - Williams, Paul AU - Herring, Timothy A AU - Yokota, Renata T C AU - Maia, Tiago AU - Venkatesan, Sudhir AU - Marcus, James C AU - Settergren, Gabriella AU - Arnetorp, Sofie AU - Lloyd, Andrew AU - Severens, Johan L AU - Varni, James W AU - Dixon, Sharon AU - Hamusankwa, Lweendo AU - Powell, Philip A AU - Taylor, Sylvia AU - Ware Jr, John E AU - Krol, Marieke PY - 2024 DA - 2024/8/13 TI - The Association Between Physical Distancing Behaviors to Avoid COVID-19 and Health-Related Quality of Life in Immunocompromised and Nonimmunocompromised Individuals: Patient-Informed Protocol for the Observational, Cross-Sectional EAGLE Study JO - JMIR Res Protoc SP - e52643 VL - 13 KW - SARS-CoV-2 KW - social isolation KW - patient participation KW - patient-reported outcome measures KW - quality of life KW - immunosuppression KW - respiratory tract infection KW - cost of illness KW - surveys and questionnaires KW - protocol AB - Background: Immunocompromised individuals are known to respond inadequately to SARS-CoV-2 vaccines, placing them at high risk of severe or fatal COVID-19. Thus, immunocompromised individuals and their caregivers may still practice varying degrees of social or physical distancing to avoid COVID-19. However, the association between physical distancing to avoid COVID-19 and quality of life has not been comprehensively evaluated in any study. Objective: We aim to measure physical distancing behaviors among immunocompromised individuals and the association between those behaviors and person-centric outcomes, including health-related quality of life (HRQoL) measures, health state utilities, anxiety and depression, and work and school productivity impairment. Methods: A patient-informed protocol was developed to conduct the EAGLE Study, a large cross-sectional, observational study, and this paper describes that protocol. EAGLE is designed to measure distancing behaviors and outcomes in immunocompromised individuals, including children (aged ≥6 mo) and their caregivers, and nonimmunocompromised adults in the United States and United Kingdom who report no receipt of passive immunization against COVID-19. We previously developed a novel self- and observer-reported instrument, the Physical Distancing Scale for COVID-19 Avoidance (PDS-C19), to measure physical distancing behavior levels cross-sectionally and retrospectively. Using an interim or a randomly selected subset of the study population, the PDS-C19 psychometric properties will be assessed, including structural validity, internal consistency, known-group validity, and convergent validity. Associations (correlations) will be assessed between the PDS-C19 and validated HRQoL-related measures and utilities. Structural equation modeling and regression will be used to assess these associations, adjusting for potential confounders. Participant recruitment and data collection took place from December 2022 to June 2023 using direct-to-patient channels, including panels, clinician referral, patient advocacy groups, and social media, with immunocompromising diagnosis confirmation collected and assessed for a randomly selected 25% of immunocompromised participants. The planned total sample size is 3718 participants and participant-caregiver pairs. Results will be reported by immunocompromised status, immunocompromising condition category, country, age group, and other subgroups. Results: All data analyses and reporting were planned to be completed by December 2023. Results are planned to be submitted for publication in peer-reviewed journals in 2024-2025. Conclusions: This study will quantify immunocompromised individuals’ physical distancing behaviors to avoid COVID-19 and their association with HRQoL as well as health state utilities. International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID): RR1-10.2196/52643 SN - 1929-0748 UR - https://www.researchprotocols.org/2024/1/e52643 UR - https://doi.org/10.2196/52643 UR - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/39137022 DO - 10.2196/52643 ID - info:doi/10.2196/52643 ER -