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Risk of SARS-CoV-2 Infection Among Essential Workers in a Community-Based Cohort in the United States

OBJECTIVES: The objective of this paper is to identify the risk factors for SARS-CoV-2 infection that are related to occupation type as well as workplace conditions. Identifying such risk factors could have noteworthy implications in workplace safety enhancement and emergency preparedness planning f...

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Autores principales: Wei, Chih-Fu, Lan, Fan-Yun, Hsu, Yu-Tien, Lowery, Nina, Dibona, Lauren, Akkeh, Ream, Kales, Stefanos N., Yang, Justin
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9169416/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35677773
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2022.878208
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author Wei, Chih-Fu
Lan, Fan-Yun
Hsu, Yu-Tien
Lowery, Nina
Dibona, Lauren
Akkeh, Ream
Kales, Stefanos N.
Yang, Justin
author_facet Wei, Chih-Fu
Lan, Fan-Yun
Hsu, Yu-Tien
Lowery, Nina
Dibona, Lauren
Akkeh, Ream
Kales, Stefanos N.
Yang, Justin
author_sort Wei, Chih-Fu
collection PubMed
description OBJECTIVES: The objective of this paper is to identify the risk factors for SARS-CoV-2 infection that are related to occupation type as well as workplace conditions. Identifying such risk factors could have noteworthy implications in workplace safety enhancement and emergency preparedness planning for essential workers. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective analysis of visits at a community-based SARS-CoV-2 testing site in the greater Boston area between March 18(th) and June 19(th), 2020, for individuals between 14 and 65 years of age. Nasopharyngeal swab specimen, medical review, and self-administered questionnaire were obtained, and SARS-CoV-2 infection was determined with real-time, reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Medical record-verified job classification, customer-facing, and work patterns were extracted from each individual's response through chart review and validated by licensed clinicians. The occupational patterns were coded by occupational medicine physicians with pre-specified criteria and were analyzed with logistic regression and inverse probability weighting. RESULTS: Among the 780 individuals included in the final analysis, working in healthcare-related jobs was associated with a four-fold increase in risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection (Adjusted OR: 4.00, 95% CI: 1.45–11.02). Individuals with customer-facing jobs had a two times risk increase (Adjusted OR: 1.97, 95% CI: 1.12–3.45) in having a positive SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR assay result compared to participants with non-customer facing positions. CONCLUSIONS: In this U.S. community-based population during the initial wave of the pandemic, a significant increase in risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection was observed in those employed in the healthcare sector or with customer-facing positions. Further research is warranted to determine if these correlations continued with the buildup of population immunity together with the attenuation of SARS-CoV-2 virulence.
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spelling pubmed-91694162022-06-07 Risk of SARS-CoV-2 Infection Among Essential Workers in a Community-Based Cohort in the United States Wei, Chih-Fu Lan, Fan-Yun Hsu, Yu-Tien Lowery, Nina Dibona, Lauren Akkeh, Ream Kales, Stefanos N. Yang, Justin Front Public Health Public Health OBJECTIVES: The objective of this paper is to identify the risk factors for SARS-CoV-2 infection that are related to occupation type as well as workplace conditions. Identifying such risk factors could have noteworthy implications in workplace safety enhancement and emergency preparedness planning for essential workers. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective analysis of visits at a community-based SARS-CoV-2 testing site in the greater Boston area between March 18(th) and June 19(th), 2020, for individuals between 14 and 65 years of age. Nasopharyngeal swab specimen, medical review, and self-administered questionnaire were obtained, and SARS-CoV-2 infection was determined with real-time, reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Medical record-verified job classification, customer-facing, and work patterns were extracted from each individual's response through chart review and validated by licensed clinicians. The occupational patterns were coded by occupational medicine physicians with pre-specified criteria and were analyzed with logistic regression and inverse probability weighting. RESULTS: Among the 780 individuals included in the final analysis, working in healthcare-related jobs was associated with a four-fold increase in risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection (Adjusted OR: 4.00, 95% CI: 1.45–11.02). Individuals with customer-facing jobs had a two times risk increase (Adjusted OR: 1.97, 95% CI: 1.12–3.45) in having a positive SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR assay result compared to participants with non-customer facing positions. CONCLUSIONS: In this U.S. community-based population during the initial wave of the pandemic, a significant increase in risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection was observed in those employed in the healthcare sector or with customer-facing positions. Further research is warranted to determine if these correlations continued with the buildup of population immunity together with the attenuation of SARS-CoV-2 virulence. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-05-17 /pmc/articles/PMC9169416/ /pubmed/35677773 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2022.878208 Text en Copyright © 2022 Wei, Lan, Hsu, Lowery, Dibona, Akkeh, Kales and Yang. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Public Health
Wei, Chih-Fu
Lan, Fan-Yun
Hsu, Yu-Tien
Lowery, Nina
Dibona, Lauren
Akkeh, Ream
Kales, Stefanos N.
Yang, Justin
Risk of SARS-CoV-2 Infection Among Essential Workers in a Community-Based Cohort in the United States
title Risk of SARS-CoV-2 Infection Among Essential Workers in a Community-Based Cohort in the United States
title_full Risk of SARS-CoV-2 Infection Among Essential Workers in a Community-Based Cohort in the United States
title_fullStr Risk of SARS-CoV-2 Infection Among Essential Workers in a Community-Based Cohort in the United States
title_full_unstemmed Risk of SARS-CoV-2 Infection Among Essential Workers in a Community-Based Cohort in the United States
title_short Risk of SARS-CoV-2 Infection Among Essential Workers in a Community-Based Cohort in the United States
title_sort risk of sars-cov-2 infection among essential workers in a community-based cohort in the united states
topic Public Health
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9169416/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35677773
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2022.878208
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