Bern, Get Ready (BEready) Cohort Study for Pandemic Preparedness (BEready)

February 2, 2026 updated by: University of Bern

Bern, Get Ready (BEready) Population-based Cohort Study for Pandemic Preparedness: Main Study

The BEready project aims to find out how people in the Canton of Bern can be helped to be more prepared for the next pandemic. BEready wants to understand how infections spread among people as well as between people and animals. BEready wants to find out how social and environmental factors can influence the transmission or catching of infectious diseases. BEready wants to better understand how households and their pets in the Canton of Bern were and continue to be affected by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

Study Overview

Status

Active, not recruiting

Conditions

Detailed Description

The overall aim is to establish BEready as a 'pandemic preparedness cohort', a cohort with a well-characterised study population of households, which has an infrastructure to conduct studies about infectious diseases, and which can be rapidly mobilised to respond to a new pandemic. BEready aims to understand the epidemiology and transmission of infectious diseases (particularly viral respiratory pathogens) in households including pets in the canton of Bern, and to engage diverse communities in efforts to strengthen pandemic preparedness.

The objectives are:

  • to study the distribution and timing of infectious diseases and transmission patterns of circulating infectious diseases, both between individuals and at the human-animal interface (One Health)
  • to study social (e.g. gender, affective polarisation) and environmental factors (e.g. climate change), which may affect transmission or acquisition of infectious diseases;
  • to understand how households, including their pets, in the canton of Bern have been and will be affected by COVID-19; and
  • to engage diverse communities in ongoing efforts to strengthen pandemic and public health literacy, and to prepare for the public health response to a new pandemic.

Study Type

Observational

Enrollment (Actual)

2157

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • Switzerland
      • Bern, Switzerland, 3012
        • University of Bern

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Child
  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Sampling Method

Probability Sample

Study Population

BEready will include a spectrum of the Bernese population living in private households, including adults, children and pets. A private household is defined as a person living alone or group of persons living in the same dwelling.

The study population for the BEready cohort will be enrolled from different sources in the source population of the canton of Bern. BEready aims to enrol around 1,500 households in total from:

  • Households already participating in the BEready pilot study
  • A random selection of households in Bern using the cantonal residents' register
  • Volunteer households from the general public

Description

Inclusion criteria for adults and children:

  • Informed consent
  • Residence (average of more than 3 days/week) in a private household in the canton of Bern where at least one member aged 18 agreed to take part.
  • For adults, children aged 14 years or older, and parents/legal guardians: internet connection (Wi-Fi, fixed or on a mobile phone) and personal email address.
  • For adults, children aged 11 years or older, and parents/legal guardians: able to understand, speak, read and write German, French and/or English.

Inclusion criteria for household pets: Pets of eligible household members with the consent of their owners.

Exclusion criteria for adults and children: Currently planned move outside the canton of Bern

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Response rate among the randomly sampled participants
Time Frame: Baseline
Percentage agreeing to take part, divided by the number invited, by age and sex (study level)
Baseline
Attendance of follow up visits (to derive factors associated with research participation)
Time Frame: At every annual follow-up for up to 100 years
Percentage of completed questionnaire (study level)
At every annual follow-up for up to 100 years
Incidence of respiratory virus detection in symptomatic persons
Time Frame: At the end of a 12 months period
Test positivity: percentage of nasal swab samples with a positive result for specific respiratory viruses among all viruses detected amongst those reporting disease events cumulatively by the end of one year; incidence rate for any detected virus and for specific viruses: number of nasal swab samples with a positive result per 100 person years of follow-up (individual level, infection-related)
At the end of a 12 months period
Seroprevalence of antibodies to respiratory viruses
Time Frame: At baseline and annually thereafter for up to 100 years
Proportion of serum samples with antibodies to specific respiratory viruses (individual level, infection-related)
At baseline and annually thereafter for up to 100 years
Incidence of co-infection/co-colonisation at the pet/owner interface
Time Frame: Throughout follow-up for up to 100 years
Proportion of serum samples with antibodies to specific parasites (individual level, infection-related)
Throughout follow-up for up to 100 years
Incidence of animal diseases diagnosed through syndromic surveillance
Time Frame: Throughout follow-up for up to 100 years
Based on each case definition, e.g. febrile illness, incidence of syndromic diagnoses by month (individual level, infection-related)
Throughout follow-up for up to 100 years
Prevalence of post-acute viral symptoms
Time Frame: At baseline and annually thereafter for up to 100 years
Individual level, infection-related
At baseline and annually thereafter for up to 100 years
Gender roles
Time Frame: At all timepoints for up to 100 years
Gender is a cross-cutting theme. Associations with gender measured by questionnaire will be examined for all endpoints (individual level, personal, social, demographic).
At all timepoints for up to 100 years
Number of daily social contacts
Time Frame: At baseline and annually thereafter for up to 100 years
Numbers of social contacts between humans, according to age group and location (individual level, personal, social, demographic)
At baseline and annually thereafter for up to 100 years
Affective polarisation
Time Frame: At baseline
Mean and standard deviation of Likert scale scores (individual level, personal, social, demographic)
At baseline
Knowledge of pandemic preparedness
Time Frame: At baseline
Knowledge measured by questionnaire. Summary of the survey data (individual level, personal, social, demographic)
At baseline
Knowledge of vector-borne diseases
Time Frame: At baseline
Knowledge measured by questionnaire. Summary of the survey data (individual level, personal, social, demographic)
At baseline
Experienced marginalisation
Time Frame: At baseline
Experience measured by questionnaire. Summary of the survey data (individual level, personal, social, demographic)
At baseline

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

University of Bern

Collaborators

Stiftung Vinetum

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Nicola Low, Prof. Dr. med., University of Bern

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

Helpful Links

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

April 29, 2024

Primary Completion (Estimated)

December 31, 2100

Study Completion (Estimated)

December 31, 2100

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

December 9, 2024

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

December 12, 2024

First Posted (Actual)

December 18, 2024

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

February 5, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

February 2, 2026

Last Verified

February 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 2023-02290

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

YES

IPD Plan Description

Upon request

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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