Occupational risks associated with severe COVID-19 disease and SARS-CoV-2 infection – a Swedish national case-control study conducted from October 2020 to December 2021

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to investigate whether workplace factors and occupations are associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection or severe COVID-19 in the later waves of the pandemic. METHODS: We studied 552 562 cases with a positive test for SARS-CoV-2 in the Swedish registry of communicable diseases, and 5985 cases with severe COVID-19 based on hospital admissions from October 2020 to December 2021. Four population controls were assigned the index dates of their corresponding cases. We linked job histories to job-exposure matrices to assess the odds for different transmission dimensions and different occupations. We used adjusted conditional logistic analyses to estimate odds ratios (OR) for severe COVID-19 and SARS-CoV-2 with 95% confidence intervals (CI). RESULTS: The highest OR for severe COVID-19 were for: regular contact with infected patients, (OR 1.37, 95% CI 1.23–1.54), close physical proximity (OR 1.47, 95% CI 1.34–1.61), and high exposure to diseases or infections (OR 1.72, 95% CI 1.52–1.96). Mostly working outside had lower OR (OR 0.77, 95% CI 0.57–1.06). The odds for SARS-CoV-2 when mostly working outside were similar (OR 0.83, 95% CI 0.80–0.86). The occupation with the highest OR for severe COVID-19 (compared with low-exposure occupations) was certified specialist physician (OR 2.05, 95% CI 1.31–3.21) among women and bus and tram drivers (OR 2.04, 95% CI 1.49–2.79) among men. CONCLUSIONS: Contact with infected patients, close proximity and crowded workplaces increase the risks for severe COVID-19 and SARS-CoV-2 infection. Outdoor work is associated with decreased odds for SARS-CoV-2 infection and severe COVID-19.

Carbon Dioxide Monitoring Demonstrates Variations in the Quality of Ventilation on Public Transportation Buses and University Student Shuttle Vans and Identifies Effective Interventions

“…Elevated COVID-19 mortality rates have been reported among transportation workers in comparison to workers in other occupations [ 10 ]. Bus drivers have been reported to have a relatively high risk for COVID-19 or severe COVID-19 in comparison to other professions [ 11 , 12 ]. In buses and patient transport vans, transmission of SARS-CoV-2 from source patients to individuals seated more than 1.8 meters away has been reported, suggesting possible aerosol-mediated transmission [ 13 – 15 ].…”

Education and pandemic SARS-CoV-2 infections in the German working population – the mediating role of working from home

“…Beale et al found that these differences were partly due to differences in work-related close contacts (11) and Reuter et al found that the SARS-CoV-2 infection risk was generally twice as high for essential workers than for non-essential workers (9). Attendance at the workplace during the COVID-19 pandemic seems generally to be a risk factor for a SARS-CoV-2 infection (13,14). In line with these findings, some studies found that the possibility to work from home was associated with a lower infection risk (15)(16)(17)(18).…”