Cargando…

COVID-19 as an Occupational Disease—Temporal Trends in the Number and Severity of Claims in Germany

COVID-19 is considered an occupational disease (OD), when infection occurs at the workplace for health workers (HW). Because of the increased infection risk of these workers, they were deemed to be a priority group when the vaccination campaign started in Germany in December 2020. By December 2021,...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Nienhaus, Albert, Stranzinger, Johanna, Kozak, Agnessa
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9858689/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36673937
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20021182
_version_ 1784874165401026560
author Nienhaus, Albert
Stranzinger, Johanna
Kozak, Agnessa
author_facet Nienhaus, Albert
Stranzinger, Johanna
Kozak, Agnessa
author_sort Nienhaus, Albert
collection PubMed
description COVID-19 is considered an occupational disease (OD), when infection occurs at the workplace for health workers (HW). Because of the increased infection risk of these workers, they were deemed to be a priority group when the vaccination campaign started in Germany in December 2020. By December 2021, more than 90% of HW had been vaccinated twice. We studied the number and the time trend concerning the severity of OD claims related to COVID-19. Workers’ compensation claims for OD are recorded in a standardized database of the Statutory Accident Insurance and Prevention in the Health and Welfare Services (BGW). We analyzed all notifiable COVID-19 related claims filed between 1 March 2020 and 30 September 2022. The proportion of severe cases was estimated by inpatient stays, injury benefit payments, rehabilitation measures, and deaths. The data analysis was descriptive. Due to COVID-19, 317,403 notifiable cases were reported to the BGW. Of these, 200,505 (63.2%) had thus far been recognized as OD. The number of notifiable cases was highest in 2022 and lowest in 2020. In total, 3289 insured individuals were admitted to rehabilitation management. This represented 1.6% of all recognized ODs due to COVID-19 at the BGW. The proportion of cases admitted to rehabilitation management decreased from 4.5% of all recognized ODs in 2020 to 3.2% in 2021 and to 0.1% of all recognized cases in 2022. For inpatient stays, injury benefit payment, and death, a similar trend was observed. Therefore, it might be concluded that the successful vaccination campaign mitigated the negative health effects of COVID-19 on HW. Even with vaccination, severe cases can occur. Therefore, infection prevention at the workplace remains paramount.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-9858689
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2023
publisher MDPI
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-98586892023-01-21 COVID-19 as an Occupational Disease—Temporal Trends in the Number and Severity of Claims in Germany Nienhaus, Albert Stranzinger, Johanna Kozak, Agnessa Int J Environ Res Public Health Article COVID-19 is considered an occupational disease (OD), when infection occurs at the workplace for health workers (HW). Because of the increased infection risk of these workers, they were deemed to be a priority group when the vaccination campaign started in Germany in December 2020. By December 2021, more than 90% of HW had been vaccinated twice. We studied the number and the time trend concerning the severity of OD claims related to COVID-19. Workers’ compensation claims for OD are recorded in a standardized database of the Statutory Accident Insurance and Prevention in the Health and Welfare Services (BGW). We analyzed all notifiable COVID-19 related claims filed between 1 March 2020 and 30 September 2022. The proportion of severe cases was estimated by inpatient stays, injury benefit payments, rehabilitation measures, and deaths. The data analysis was descriptive. Due to COVID-19, 317,403 notifiable cases were reported to the BGW. Of these, 200,505 (63.2%) had thus far been recognized as OD. The number of notifiable cases was highest in 2022 and lowest in 2020. In total, 3289 insured individuals were admitted to rehabilitation management. This represented 1.6% of all recognized ODs due to COVID-19 at the BGW. The proportion of cases admitted to rehabilitation management decreased from 4.5% of all recognized ODs in 2020 to 3.2% in 2021 and to 0.1% of all recognized cases in 2022. For inpatient stays, injury benefit payment, and death, a similar trend was observed. Therefore, it might be concluded that the successful vaccination campaign mitigated the negative health effects of COVID-19 on HW. Even with vaccination, severe cases can occur. Therefore, infection prevention at the workplace remains paramount. MDPI 2023-01-09 /pmc/articles/PMC9858689/ /pubmed/36673937 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20021182 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Nienhaus, Albert
Stranzinger, Johanna
Kozak, Agnessa
COVID-19 as an Occupational Disease—Temporal Trends in the Number and Severity of Claims in Germany
title COVID-19 as an Occupational Disease—Temporal Trends in the Number and Severity of Claims in Germany
title_full COVID-19 as an Occupational Disease—Temporal Trends in the Number and Severity of Claims in Germany
title_fullStr COVID-19 as an Occupational Disease—Temporal Trends in the Number and Severity of Claims in Germany
title_full_unstemmed COVID-19 as an Occupational Disease—Temporal Trends in the Number and Severity of Claims in Germany
title_short COVID-19 as an Occupational Disease—Temporal Trends in the Number and Severity of Claims in Germany
title_sort covid-19 as an occupational disease—temporal trends in the number and severity of claims in germany
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9858689/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36673937
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20021182
work_keys_str_mv AT nienhausalbert covid19asanoccupationaldiseasetemporaltrendsinthenumberandseverityofclaimsingermany
AT stranzingerjohanna covid19asanoccupationaldiseasetemporaltrendsinthenumberandseverityofclaimsingermany
AT kozakagnessa covid19asanoccupationaldiseasetemporaltrendsinthenumberandseverityofclaimsingermany