Collaborating Consortium of Cohorts Producing NIDA Opportunities (C3PNO)

Abstract: In response to the Notice of Special Interest (NOSI) regarding the Availability of Administrative Supplements andUrgent Competitive Revisions for Research on the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (Notice Number NOT-DA-20-047and linked Program Announcement PA-18-591) funding opportunity, the Collaborating Consortium of CohortsProducing NIDA Opportunities (C3PNO; U24DA044554) proposes a project to assess the impact of COVID-19on the participating cohorts' population of substance-using people living with HIV (PLWH) and those at high-riskfor HIV infection. Our innovative study proposes to collect data from a subset of participants from each of sevenparticipating C3PNO cohorts at two time points - in the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and during itsmitigation and control - in order to assess the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic on substance use for PLWHand those at high risk for HIV. We will use our current infrastructure and C3PNO validated harmonizationstrategies to compile new and existing data across the cohorts in order to: assess changes in social andindividual determinants of health during the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, to estimate differences insubstance-using behaviors of those who were confirmed/probable cases of COVID-19 (based on self-report ormedical record) and those who were not a confirmed/probable case, and to assess how PLWH and people whoare at high risk for HIV in C3PNO have different experiences in and responses to the COVID-19 epidemic ascompared to other HIV studies and cohorts that have less substance use. The C3PNO Coordinating Center atUCLA and Frontier Science will facilitate the design and implementation of a survey to collect data from a subsetof participants from each of seven participating C3PNO cohorts (ALIVE, HYM, JHHCC, MASH, mSTUDY,RADAR, and V-DUS). Participating cohorts will issue the survey to participants and transfer the resulting datato the coordinating center. If funded, this administrative supplement would allow a rapid and coordinatedcollection of linked COVID-19, HIV, and substance use data related to an ongoing public health emergencyaffecting the highly vulnerable substance-using populations followed by the cohorts. COVID-19 dataharmonization with other HIV cohorts will further aide our collective effort to understand the impact of COVID-19on HIV impacted communities. Finally, C3PNO's effort to assess changes in social and individual determinantsof health during the course of the COVID-19 pandemic as well as estimate differences in substance-usingbehaviors and the impact on PLWH or at high risk for HIV is both novel and critical in this time of unprecedentedsocial upheaval and instability.