The Wellcome Trust's Covid-19 Questionnaire

The Wellcome Trust's Covid-19 questionnaire is freely available to all population health researchers.
The Questionnaire
The Welcome Trust COVID-19 questionnaires are freely available to population health researchers to address health, behaviour, social, environmental and economic questions in the context of the pandemic.
They are designed to help researchers explore changes using the same validated questions to the lives of cohort participants the UK and elsewhere.
The first questionnaire asked about COVID-19 signs and symptoms, but more broadly about the effect of lockdown on physical and mental health and overall wellbeing. The second questionnaire, added in August 2020, includes neighbourhood issues, domestic violence, alcohol use, healthcare, thoughts on the lockdown and new connections made during the pandemic.
Both questionnaires are available as data dictionaries and have also been formatted in RedCap and Qualtrics.
The resource has been made possible by Wellcome Trust support to the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, University of Bristol and Generation Scotland, University of Edinburgh.
Using the Questionnaire
The questionnaire is freely available and to use it simply get in touch using our email: wellcomecovid-19@bristol.ac.uk
Please let us know how, where and when you have used the questionnaire and if you need additional information, advice or support.
Common themes
Academic teams are working on the following themes:
- Risk perception and mental health (ALSPAC, University of Bristol and Generation Scotland, University of Edinburgh)
- Health economic impact (Generation Scotland, University of Edinburgh)
- BMI (ALSPAC, University of Bristol)
- Respiratory (EXCEED at University of Leicester)
- Ethnicity (Born in Bradford)
- Frailty (Centre for Longitudinal Studies)
Analysis
We will provide introductory advice and guidance on single and cross cohort analysis and linkage to other available data sets on request. Please contact us for more information.
Reaching policy makers
We have established a rapid-response pipeline to the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) via Health Data Research UK and to other policy makers through the CLOSER COVID-19 research hub.
If you wish to highlight your research findings to these groups, please get in touch.

Wellcome are very pleased to support this work to enable the development, deployment, collection and analysis of a shared COVID-19 questionnaire across UK cohorts and other studies. This work is essential to promote reproducibility and foster open and trustworthy research, as well as of course to advance science. Wellcome are really grateful to all participants who have generously provided their data to tackle this global crisis.
Who's who
Studies who are contributing to the development of the questionnaire, data analysis and cascade of research are:
- Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children
- Born in Bradford
- Centre for Longitudinal Studies
- COSMOS, SCAMP & Airwave
- The English Longitudinal Study of Ageing
- EXCEED
- Generation Scotland
- National Blood Donor Cohort
- SAPRIN
- South Asia Biobank
- Twins UK
Secretariat: Professor Nic Timpson, Professor David Porteous, Lynn Molloy, Robin Flaig
Steering group: Professor Naomi Allen, Drew Altscul, Jeff Banks, Andy Boyd, Professor Lisa Calderwood, Professor Nish Chaturvedi, Professor John Chambers, Professor John Danesh, Dr Leon Danon, Professor Emanuele Di Angelantonio, Dr Josie Dickerson, Professor Paul Elliot, Dr Chloe Fawns-Ritchie, Alissa Goodman, Ben Gordon, Anna Guyatt, Paz Garcia, Professor Rebecca Hardy, Dr Deborah Hart, Simon Haworth, Charlotte Huggins, Dr Claudia Langenberg, Professor Deborah A Lawlor, Dr Kate Northstone, Professor Rosie McEachan, Sally McManus, Joe McNamara, James Pickett, Professor George Ploubidis, David Seymour, Claire Steves, Dr Ellen Thompson, Professor Martin Tobin, Dr Laura Venn, Professor Helen Ward, Professor Jim Wilson and Dr Tiffany Yang.
Funders: Bridget Taylor (ESRC), Bruna Galobardes (Wellcome Trust), Catherine Moody (MRC), Gavin Malloch (MRC), Laura Morrell (ESRC), Mary de Silva (Wellcome Trust), Rhos Walker (HDRUK), Tamysn Derrick (MRC).
Referencing the questionnaire
Contact Us
To request the questionnaire or support please email us at
wellcomecovid-19@bristol.ac.uk
Linkage
We are working to maximise and improve the efficiency of NHS and administrative data linkage to enhance cross-cohort analyses of the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ethics
Do get in touch if you need assistance with your questionnaire ethics application.
Field Studies
The questionnaire is currently being used in Department of Health and Social Care supported field studies of serological test for COVID-19. We encourage and will endeavour to support the use of the questionnaire for similar COVID-19 studies.
Outputs
Research and blogs from the questionnaire will be posted here.
Partnerships
We’re working with The International HundredK+ Consortium of Cohorts to share resources, intelligence and data where appropriate. IHCC have a Wellcome Trust funded questionnaire targeted for lower and middle income countries to aid a standard approach to pandemic research questions.
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Get in touch
To request a copy of the questionnaire or for support contact us at wellcomecovid-19@bristol.ac.uk