Document is current

Article History

Received: 29 September 2022

Accepted: 18 April 2023

First Online: 26 April 2023

Declarations

:

: The Ethics Committee of South-East Norway confirmed (June 4, 2020, #153204) that external ethical board review was not required. The data sources (The emergency preparedness register for COVID-19 (Beredt C19)) and methods used were regarded by the ethical committee to respond to research aims <i>not</i> falling within the Law of Health Research §§ 2 and 4a. Their resolution was also based on the fact that the data sources were established and handled in accordance with the Health Preparedness Act §2-4 (11), enabling a quick and responsive way for the Norwegian government to access knowledge of how to handle the pandemic. No informed consent from participants was required since our study was based on routinely collected register data covering the entire Norwegian population. Data from the different registers included in the study were linked by the responsible researchers using an encrypted personal ID-variable. The researchers responsible for the data linkage and analyses had no access to the unencrypted ID-numbers. All methods were carried out in accordance with relevant guidelines and regulations. To protect participants’ privacy and security of personal data, all data were handled under strict confidentiality and access control as described in the Norwegian Institute of Public Health’s internal documentation.

: Not applicable.

: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.