Epidemiology of and Risk Factors for COVID-19 Infection among Health Care Workers: A Multi-Centre Comparative Study

Abstract

Healthcare workers (HCWs) worldwide are putting themselves at high risks of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) by treating a large number of patients while lacking protective equipment. We aim to provide a scientific basis for preventing and controlling the COVID-19 infection among HCWs. We used data on COVID-19 cases in the city of Wuhan to compare epidemiological characteristics between HCWs and non-HCWs and explored the risk factors for infection and deterioration among HCWs based on hospital settings. The attack rate (AR) of HCWs in the hospital can reach up to 11.9% in Wuhan. The time interval from symptom onset to diagnosis in HCWs and non-HCWs dropped rapidly over time. From mid-January, the median time interval of HCW cases was significantly shorter than in non-HCW cases. Cases of HCWs and non-HCWs both clustered in northwestern urban districts rather than in rural districts. HCWs working in county-level hospitals in high-risk areas were more vulnerable to COVID-19. HCW cases working in general, ophthalmology, and respiratory departments were prone to deteriorate compared with cases working in the infection department. The AR of COVID-19 in HCWs are higher than in non-HCWs. Multiple factors in hospital settings may play important roles in the transmission of COVID-19. Effective measures should be enhanced to prevent HCWs from COVID-19 infection.

Socioeconomic and Behavioral Correlates of COVID-19 Infections among Hospital Workers in the Greater Jakarta Area, Indonesia: A Cross-Sectional Study

“…In other words, the infection rates were significantly higher among healthcare workers compared to non-healthcare workers, which was similar to a study in China, which showed that the infection rates were 2.10% and 0.43% among healthcare and non-healthcare workers, respectively [ 30 ]. The results also corroborate findings from previous studies, which discovered that the infection risk of healthcare workers was significantly higher than that of non-healthcare workers [ 8 , 22 , 30 ]. The positive association between being a healthcare worker and COVID-19 status may be explained by several factors experienced particularly by healthcare workers, such as performing certain medical procedures, prolonged contact with infected patients, and working pressures during the pandemic period [ 14 , 16 , 31 ].…”

“…However, most of these studies were conducted in high-income countries [ 8 , 9 , 17 , 18 , 19 ]. Studies examining the determinants of COVID-19 infections among healthcare workers in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) were only conducted in China [ 16 , 20 , 21 , 22 ]. Thus, our study aims to fill the gap by examining demographic and behavioral correlates of COVID-19 infections among hospital workers in Indonesia, an upper-middle-income country.…”

Temporal Trends in COVID-19 Incidence in Two Healthcare Worker Cohorts

“… 5 A population-based study carried out in Wuhan, China established that HCWs were at increased risk of contracting COVID-19 and that the risk within HCWs differed by job duties. 6 It has been estimated that HCWs experience more than three-fold increased odds of COVID-19 infection. 7 These studies do not directly assess whether or not hospital-specific passive surveillance based on symptomatic case reporting among HCWs reasonably reflects community-wide trends and thus can inform management, for example, for surge planning.…”

Risk of COVID-19 morbidity and mortality among healthcare workers working in a Large Tertiary Care Hospital

“…The COVID-19 pandemic is considered an unprecedented physical and mental challenge for healthcare workers (HCWs) around the world ( Salazar de Pablo et al, 2020 , Shaukat et al, 2020 ). HCWs being at the frontline of treating patients with confirmed COVID-19 are at higher risk of exposure than the general population ( Ali et al, 2020 , Nguyen et al, 2020 , Wei et al, 2020 , Zheng et al, 2020 ). However, being more healthy they are expected to have better outcome in terms of hospitalization and mortality compared with non-HCWs ( Misra-Hebert et al, 2020 , Wei et al, 2020 , Zheng et al, 2020 ).…”