Purpose
The broad purpose of the SWECOV project is to answer two research questions:- What are the consequences of COVID-19—as well as the interventions and reforms implemented to stop the spread of the disease—on public health, in terms of mortality and morbidity, but also psychological and physiological well-being more broadly?
- What are the consequences of the pandemic—as well as the interventions and reforms implemented to stop the spread of the disease—for central social and economic outcomes, like jobs, income and inequality?
By answering these questions, we aim to provide individuals, professionals, and policy makers with knowledge to help mitigate the spread of future pandemics and limit their social, economic, and health consequences. We believe that these broad questions are best answered if studied with the best available data, preferably linked individual-level data from a multitude of sources. We also believe that the questions are best answered if studied from multiple perspectives, by scholars from different disciplines. We have therefore organized the project to be open for researchers and set up an application process to join SWECOV.
Background
SWECOV (officially Ett forskningsprogram om covid-19 i Sverige: Smittspridning, bekämpning och effekter på individer och samhälle) was started by Professor Torsten Persson in collaboration with the Swedish Corona Commission. Professor Persson, who was also a member of the commission, realized that it would be crucial for the commission to support new research in order to properly fulfill its task.
During its working period, which ended with the publication of a final report in February 2022, the Corona Commission supported the research in SWECOV, chiefly by financing data purchases from different registers. In early 2022, the board of Riksbankens Jubileumsfond (The Riksbank Tercentenary Foundation) took a decision to support the continuation of SWECOV—as a major data source and network for research about the pandemic and its consequences—with a generous four-year grant.
Data
The SWECOV project has collected individual-level and aggregate data from many Swedish authorities. Most sources cover the full Swedish population. This section provides an overview of the different data sources that we use in the project to answer the research questions above. All data is either anonymous (aggregated) or pseudonymized, where any personal identifiers have been replaced with random numbers. This allows us to link data from different sources at the individual level without knowing the identities of the study population. Pseudonymous data is however still personal data and is therefore handled with the highest security standards. All data is stored and accessed through MONA, the secure data environment ran by Statistics Sweden. Each study has its own processing environment where only the data required for that specific study is accessible. All data proccessing has been approved by the Swedish Ethical Review Authority.Statistics Sweden / SCB
RTB
Data on the total population registered in Sweden. The data comprises residential information of all people registered in Sweden as well as on changes in the respective years, such as births, deaths, immigration, emigration and moves within Sweden. Furthermore, individual networks can be derived using information on family and household composition, registered partners, children/parents.
Salaries and benefits (AGI)
Information on salaries and (social) benefits paid out to individuals. The information stems from the tax returns that are submitted to Skatteverket (Swedish tax agency) each month. Individual- and company-level data tables are available.
Production of commodities and industrial services
The annual statistics present the breakdown of goods in Sweden's industrial production with information on quantity and value. Production of goods and industrial services are included in the statistics.
Labor market developments (AKU)
The Labour Force Survey (Arbetskraftsundersökningarna) is carried out on an ongoing basis by Statistics Sweden. The objectives of the survey are to describe the current employment conditions and to give information on the development of the labour market.
Structural business statistics (FEK)
The purpose of Structural Business Statistics is to illuminate the structure of the business sector (excluding the financial and public sectors as well as households' non-profit organisations) with regard to primarily profitability, growth, development, financing and production.
Statistical Business Register (FDB)
The number of enterprises and employees by industry and size class are reported in the statistical business register, which is a register of all enterprises, government agencies, organisations and their workplaces.
VAT / Moms
Moms includes yearly files over VAT paid and reported by Swedish firms. Useful source of information about different kinds of sales, for example differentiating between alcohol and food at restaurants.
Income and taxation register (IoT)
Annual tables on income and taxes of all taxable individuals in Sweden. IoT was used to efficiently get longer time series on income and taxation data. Information in IoT is also contained in LISA and AGI. Therefore, IoT is no longer updated.
Short-term business statistics on sick pay
Individual-level data on sick pay periods.
Bankruptcies / konkurser
Firm-level data on bankruptcies.
LISA firms
Data on all active Swedish companies from the "longitudinal integrated database for health insurance and labour market studies" (LISA). Only active firms listed in the RAMS database are included. The annual tables include financial and workforce data.
LISA workplaces
Data on workplaces ("arbetsställen") from the "longitudinal integrated database for health insurance and labour market studies" (LISA) listed in the RAMS database. The annual tables include workforce data.
LISA Individuals
Data comes from the "longitudinal integrated database for health insurance and labour market studies" (LISA) and includes all individuals 16 years and older (since 2010 also 15 year-olds). Available tables include information on individual's incomes from employment, unemployment, sick pay and other social benefits among other background variables (e.g., education).
RAMS job register
Individual-level data on employment and incomes from RAMS. The population consists of all individuals that are 16 years or older at the end of the respective year.
RAMS workplaces
Addresses and workforce data of in long-term care facilities (SÄBOs). Additional data on all workplaces can be found in LISA workplaces.
STATIV
Individual-level data from the longitudinal database for integration studies. Available data includes information on employment and received support from the Swedish Public Employment Service.
Foreign trade
Firm-level statistics on foreign trade. Among the information included in the available tables are the type, value, and amount of goods and services exported/imported as well as the destination/origin country.
University registry (HREG)
Individual-level data from the university registry on applications, admissions and registrations to the different educational programs offered at the Swedish universities. Moreover, information on course- and programme-level achievements (course points/diplomas) is available.
Education register (UREG)
The education registry contains individual-level information about the highest completed education. Educational classifications are made according to the Swedish Educational Terminology (Svensk utbildningsnomenklatur; SUN).
Teaching personnel / Lärarregistret
The statistics contain information on the employment, education and activity level of teachers. Data contains a school-level ID allowing to link teachers, students and schools and to integrate background information (e.g., municipality) of the schools.
Geographical database
Information on the geographic location of individuals, schools and workplaces. Spatial resolution is at the Demographic Statistical Area-level (DeSo) and at 250x250m resolution.
SCB Surveys
Remote teaching at compulsory and high school-level (VT20-VT21), ICT usage in enterprises (2013-2020), Research and development in the business sector (1997-2021), Innovation activities in Swedish businesses (2002-2020).
SÄBO residents
Information on movements, addresses of people living in long-term care facilities (SÄBOs) in Stockholm, Gothenburg, Malmö.
Socialstyrelsen
Prescribed Drug Register / Läkemedelsregistret
The National Prescribed Drug Register contains all prescribed drugs dispensed at pharmacies. Each row in the register corresponds to one dispensation at a pharmacy. The available data contains among others the ATC-codes, amount of dispensed drugs, and the prescription and collection date.
Cause of Death Register / Dödsorsaksregistret
The Cause of Death Register contains information on the underlying and contributing causes of all deaths in the population. In addition, the date and place of death (e.g., at home, in hospital care) is available.
Intensive Care Register / Intensivvårdsregistret
Registry of individuals who has received care for COVID-19 in Swedish intensive care. The data includes information on the health status, diagnosis and medical procedures of the COVID-19 ICU events.
Patient Register / Patientregistret
Data on all inpatient and outpatient care provided to individuals in the study population. Some codes for diagnoses (i.e., ICD) and medical procedures (i.e., KVÅ) are truncated.
Register of Measures for Children and Young persons
Interventions of the child social services for the protection of children and adolescents. The data comprises basic information on the measures and placements such as the type of measure (e.g., placement, immediate custody) or the type of placement (e.g., foster homes, youth homes).
Cancer register / Cancerregistret
Information on cancer diagnoses of people living in long-term care facilities. Each row corresponds to an individual cancer diagnosis. The data comprises additional detailed information on the localization and pathology of the tumors.
Register of Social Assistance
Monthly individual- and household-level data on social assistance paid by the National Board of Health and Welfare (Socialstyrelsen). The data includes information on the reason and amount of social assistance as well as basic information on the households.
Register of Interventions in Municipal Health Care
Registry over municipal health care services. Before 2019, only data on the beneficiaries is available. Since 2019, more information about the individual medical procedures and the health care providers is available.
Register of Municipal Support and Service (LSS)
Information on the types of support services provided to people with disability according to LSS (Act on Support and Service for Persons with Certain Functional Impairments/lagen om stöd och service till vissa funktionshindrade). The data is provided by individual and year.
Register of Care and Social Services for the Elderly
Data on elderly care decisions. The data contains monthly individual-level information on the types of care and the residence status (e.g., long-term care facilities/särskild boende, SÄBO).
Primary care data
Region Stockholm
Diagnoses and medical procedures.
Region Skåne
Diagnoses and medical procedures.
Region Västra Götaland
Diagnoses and medical procedures.
Folkhälsomyndigheten
National vaccination register
The National Vaccination Register comprises information on vaccinations administered within the scope of the national vaccination programme for children, vaccination programme against pneumococcal infections for risk groups and the COVID-19 vaccinations.
COVID-19 cases (SmiNet)
SmiNet is The Public Health Agency of Sweden's database where all cases of diseases with legal reporting requirements (anmälningsplikt) are registered. Doctors report cases to SmiNet, and reports are verified by the disease prevention and control units in the reporting region. We have access to all registered SARS-CoV-2 cases. In a separate table, we have data on all registered tests. Moreover, there is a subset of samples for which the results of whole genome sequencing on the SARS-CoV-2 lineages are available.
Pandremix vaccinations
Vaccinations against the 2009 swine flu from the Region Östergötland, Region Norrbotten, Region Kalmar, Region Kronoberg, Region Värmland, Region Västerbotten, Region Jönköping, Region Uppsala.
The Swedish Tax Agency / Skatteverket
Financial support from Skatteverket
Firm-level data from the Swedish Tax Agency on tax payments and financial support. Tax information includes employers contributions (arbetsgivaravgift) and VAT (moms). Financial support data includes applications for tax-payment respites (tillfälligt anstånd) and redeployment support (omställningsstöd) as well as reductions of social security contributions during the pandemic.
Inspektionen för Arbetslöshetsförsäkringen
ASTAT
ASTAT contains information on unemployment benefits from the different unemployment funds in Sweden. Data on the individual benefit periods consist among others of information on the recipient, the reason for the payments, and the amount and duration of the benefit period.
Arbetsförmedlingen
Arbetsförmedlingen
Detailed longitudinal information on individuals registered with the Swedish Public Employment Service. It covers participation in labor market programs, activation measures, and unemployment benefit eligibility. The data includes start and end dates of registrations, reasons for entering or leaving programs, information on assigned activities and interventions, as well as variables describing occupational codes (SSYK) and assessment of needs.
Tillväxtverket
Short-time work
Firm-level and individual-level data on short-time work during the pandemic.
Försäkringskassan
Benefit payments
Data on various benefit payments from Försäkringskassan (Social Insurance Agency). Data comes from MIDAS, Försäkringskassans register. Available data includes benefits for sickness (including COVID-19-specific benefits) and disability. In addition, information on benefit payments for parents (e.g., parental leave or care allowance for sick children, VAB) and job seekers is included.
Läkemedelsverket
Side-effects
The data includes information from reported side-effects from vaccinations. Perceived side-effects were reported to Swedish Medical Products Agency (Läkemedelsverket) by patients and medical professionals. It covers the time period since 2005 and hence also includes reported side-effects of vaccines other than against SARS-CoV-2.
Inera/1177
1177 calls and ordered COVID-19 tests
Two tables are available. Firstly, data on calls to the 1177 health counselling hotline. The data includes information on the main symptom reported during the call and the urgency level determined by the telephone counsellor. Secondly, data on ordered COVID-19 tests through the 1177 hotline. As opposed to the registered positive tests in SMINet, we also have information on individuals that tested negative. The data covers all regions except Region Kronoberg and Region Östergötland. Hotline data is also not available for Stockholm.
SOS Alarm
Ambulance operations
Incidences of ambulance operations in the following regions: Blekinge, Halland, Jönköping, Kronoberg, Skåne, Stockholm, Örebro, and Östergötland. Data contains information on the place and reason for the operation. No personal IDs are available in this data set. Hence, it can't be linked to other individual-level data.
Riksarkivet/Pliktverket
Military enlistment
Individual-level data from the military enlistment from Riksarkivet (1969-1997) and Pliktverket (1997-2010). Data contains the grades given for cognitive and leadership skills, psychological function as well as anthropometric measurements.
Skolverket
Elevregistret
The data from the school registry (elevregistret) contain information on students in pre-school classes (förskoleklass), compulsory schools (grundskola) and leisure-time centers (fritidshem). The information include grades in compulsory school and high school as well as results from the national tests.
Telia
Mobility data
Aggregated weekly estimates of number of trips between and within the 290 municipalities in Sweden. Estimates are derived by tracing mobile phone's signals to transmission towers and made representative for the Swedish population by taking Telia's market share and other variables into account. Data is aggregated at the municipal level and does not contain any personal IDs.
Swedbank
Swedbank domestic transactions
Payments within Sweden using Swedbank bank cards. The data contains a card ID that is associated with a ZIP code but can't be linked to other individual-level data.
Swedbank foreign transactions
Card-level transactions made outside Sweden. Data include the date and country of the transaction and the age group and ZIP code of the card owner but no personal ID that would allow to link them with other registers.
Quality registers
National Diabetes Register (NDR)
The data contain information about the diagnosis, treatment complications of diabetic patients as well as risk factors. Data on adults stem from the diabetes register ("Diabetesregistret"). It contains approximately 85% of all diabetes patients in Sweden. Data on children come from the child diabetes register ("Swediabkids") which has an almost 100% coverage.
Pregnancy register (Graviditetsregistret)
The Pregnancy Registry is a national quality registry. The Pregnancy Registry collects data via automatic transfer from medical record systems, via manual entry within the maternal health care (MHV) and via direct registration during KUB examinations. The registry collects and processes information all the way from early pregnancy up to and including a few months after delivery.
SWECOV derived data
Comorbidities and risk groups
Two indicators created by SWECOV based on other available health data: Comorbidities (indicator for individuals having comorbidities that are associated with higher risk of developing severe forms of COVID-19) and Risk groups (indicator for individuals having pre-existing conditions that may lead to a higher risk of infection of SARS-CoV-2 or higher risk of severe Covid-19 if infected). The indicators were identified through diagnosis and treatment during episodes of inpatient care or visits to specialized outpatient care up to five years prior to, or during the index year.
Charlson and Elixhauser comorbidity indexes
Annual comorbidity indexes using standard methodologies (Charlson and Elixhauser) based on diagnoses included in the National Patient Registers. The raw data containing these codes may also be available if researchers wish to adapt the indexes to their needs.
Project coordinators
Torsten Persson
Principal investigator
Swedish Research Council Distinguished Professor at the Institute for International Economic Studies at Stockholm university
Adam Altmejd
Project coordinator
Researcher at the Swedish Institute for Social Research at Stockholm university.
Dominik Dietler
Project coordinator
Researcher at the Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine at Lund University.
Maxim Kan
Project coordinator
Researcher at the Global Public Health Department at Karolinska Institute.
Steering board
The SWECOV steering board sets the direction and agenda for the project. The board meets four times per year. In addition to Professor Persson and the project coordinators, the board currently consists of:- Professor Jonas Björk, Lund University
- Professor Anna-Mia Ekström, Karolinska Institutet
- Professor Tove Fall, Uppsala University
- Professor Olle Lundberg, Stockholm University and FORTE
- Professor Helena Svaleryd, Uppsala University