About the MAP-19 project
The project was initiated and launched by the three University of Oslo and Modum Bad Psychiatric Hospital Researchers, Omid V. Ebrahimi, Sverre Urnes Johnson and Asle Hoffart. Omid V. Ebrahimi is the Principal Investigator (PI) of the project. The project has been widely featured in the international pandemic literature, across national news platforms, provided a foundation for policy implementations and modifications during the COVID-19 pandemic both nationally and internationally, and has been central in the understanding the mental health sequelae related to the pandemic.
The MAP-19 project aims to:
- Inform policymakers, the general public, scientists, and health practitioners about the psychological implications tied to the COVID-19-related government-initiated measures.
- Provide a foundation for policymakers and health-care professionals to employ interventions that protect the general public against psychological stressors accompanying the pandemic.
- Help policymakers better understand the associations of demographic variables and psychological symptoms with adherence to viral mitigation behaviours, providing an understanding of adherence rates and its central covariates to help society fight against the COVID-19-virus by finding actionable targets that facilitate adherence viral mitigations behaviours.
- Investigate the mental health status in vulnerable and at-risk subgroups in the population during the COVID-19 pandemic, including health-care professionals, politicians and social workers.
Project group
The project is led by researchers from the University of Oslo and Modum Bad Hospital. The project description, analysis plan and its ethical aspects was approved by The Regional Committee for Medical and Health Research Ethics (reference number: 125510) and the Norwegian Centre for Research Data (reference number: 802810) on the 25th of March 2020.
Large-scale longitudinal study spanning over 3 years
The data collection for the MAP-19 project began on the 31st of March 2020, two weeks after non-pharmacological interventions were employed against the COVID-19 virus nationally in Norway.
Longitudinal repeated-measures and high-dimensional data on 10 061 participants are collected to date (March 2023) with a total of 50 measurement time-points over a 3-year period across all major infection waves of the pandemic. Specifically, 10 main waves of repeated-measurements panel data are collected, accompanied by an additional 40 days of intensive longitudinal repeated measurements data to date.
Systematic and pre-defined rationale toward timing of assessments
The study employs a pre-defined and systematic rationale to the timing of assessments across its 3 year period. The 10 main data collection waves are conducted with the aim of inspecting robust associations of mental health with pandemic mitigation protocols, where data at each wave is collected approximately two weeks following modification of pandemic mitigation protocols. Additionally, the study is designed to keep expectation effects constant, with a stopping rule implemented in the design to immediately end data collection if any new information is provided by the government during data collection concerning forthcoming changes of pandemic protocols.
