Ancestry Released Update on their COVID-19 Study

Ancestry has released information about their COVID-19 study in a blog post written by EVP of Health and DNA at Ancestry, Ron Park, MD. He reminds us that Ancestry’s COVID-19 Study was launched to look for genetic clues on how individuals respond to the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19.

Ancestry is grateful to the nearly 600,000 people who have already volunteered to participate in the study through Ancestry’s Personal Discoveries Project. The company encourages the community to continue its engagement and support.

Right now, the company is in the very early stages of looking at the data. Some early observations from Ancestry’s internal team have been made. The team is led by Ancestry’s Chief Scientific Officer Dr. Catherine Ball. Some observations include:

507,000 people participated in the survey between April 22-May 22, 2020

Participants were from all 50 states in the US

Average age was 53.9

Gender was 67.5% female, 32.1% male, 0.35% other

94% of participants fully completed the survey, including pre-existing conditions/cormorbidities, other risk factors, medications, and symptomology

In looking at the study participants who reported COVID-19 exposure risk, Ancestry found that:

18.5% of study participants reported that they had either experienced flu-like symptoms or were tested for COVID-19

12% of study participants reported a known exposure to COVID-19

For those who were tested, the likelihood of a positive result was 13.4%

3,700 participants reported they had received a confirmed COVID-19 positive test. In this cohort, Ancestry’s team found that their characteristics are similar to those seen in a CDC database of those who tested positive from hospitals and clinics.

The median age was 49 (48 with CDC). Self-reported gender was 64.64% female, 35.1% male, 0.27% other (51% female with CDC). 10.0% have been in the hospital (14% with CDC). 4.5% have been in the ICU (11% with CDC).

Related Articles on FamilyTree.com:

Ancestry Invites You to Help Advance Research to Fight COVID-19

23andMe is Doing a Genetic Study on COVID-19

Patten Free Library is Archiving Local COVID-19 Stories