Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Feb:203:116-122.
doi: 10.1016/j.puhe.2021.12.012.

Return to work after COVID-19 infection - A Danish nationwide registry study

P A Jacobsen  1 , M P Andersen  2 , G Gislason  3 , M Phelps  4 , J H Butt  5 , L Køber  5 , M Schou  6 , E Fosbøl  2 , H C Christensen  7 , C Torp-Pedersen  8 , T Gerds  9 , U M Weinreich  10 , K Kragholm  11
Affiliations

Return to work after COVID-19 infection - A Danish nationwide registry study

P A Jacobsen et al. Public Health. 2022 Feb.

Abstract

Objectives: This study aimed to explore return to work after COVID-19 and how disease severity affects this.

Study design: This is a Nationwide Danish registry-based cohort study using a retrospective follow-up design.

Methods: Patients with a first-time positive SARS-CoV-2 polymerase chain reaction test between 1 January 2020 and 30 May 2020, including 18-64 years old, 30-day survivors, and available to the workforce at the time of the first positive test were included. Admission types (i.e. no admission, admission to non-intensive care unit [ICU] department and admission to ICU) and return to work was investigated using Cox regression standardised to the age, sex, comorbidity and education-level distribution of all included subjects with estimates at 3 months from positive test displayed.

Results: Among the 7466 patients included in the study, 81.9% (6119/7466) and 98.4% (7344/7466) returned to work within 4 weeks and 6 months, respectively, with 1.5% (109/7466) not returning. Of the patients admitted, 72.1% (627/870) and 92.6% (805/870) returned 1 month and 6 months after admission to the hospital, with 6.6% (58/870) not returning within 6 months. Of patients admitted to the ICU, 36% (9/25) did not return within 6 months. Patients with an admission had a lower chance of return to work 3 months from positive test (relative risk [RR] 0.95, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.94-0.96), with the lowest chance in patients admitted to an ICU department (RR 0.54, 95% CI 0.35-0.72). Female sex, older age, and comorbidity were associated with a lower chance of returning to work.

Conclusion: Hospitalised patients with COVID-19 infection have a lower chance of returning to work with potential implications for postinfection follow-up and rehabilitation.

Keywords: Covid-19; Long-term COVID; Return to work; Severity; Sick leave; Workforce connection.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Cumulative incidence plot of all PCR-positive COVID-19 patients with follow-up starting 4 weeks after positive test.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Cumulative incidence plot of return to the workforce in patients admitted to the hospital with either COVID-19 or influenza. Follow-up starts 4 weeks after admission.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Patients not returning to work in % after first admission to the hospital in subgroups. Estimates and confidence intervals extracted from cumulative incidence. Abreviations: Adm = Admission, M = Male, F = Female.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Relative chance of return to work within 3 months calculated from cox regression model. CI, confidence interval.
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Relative risk of sick leave above 4 weeks calculated from logistic regression model. CI, confidence interval.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Huang C., Huang L., Wang Y., Li X., Ren L., Gu X., et al. 6-month consequences of COVID-19 in patients discharged from hospital: a cohort study. Lancet. 2021;397(10270):220–232. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Taquet M., Geddes J.R., Husain M., Luciano S., Harrison P.J. 6-month neurological and psychiatric outcomes in 236379survivors of COVID -19:a retrospective cohort study using electronic health records. Lancet Psychiatr. 2021;8(5):416–427. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Xiong Q., Xu M., Li J., Liu Y., Zhang J., Xu Y., et al. Clinical sequelae of COVID-19 survivors in Wuhan, China: a single-centre longitudinal study. Clin Microbiol Infect – Off Publ European Soc Clin Microbiol Infect Dis. 2021;27(1):89–95. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Xue Y., Kristiansen I.S., de Blasio B.F. Modeling the cost of influenza: the impact of missing costs of unreported complications and sick leave. BMC Publ Health. 2010;10:724. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Ludwig M., Jacob J., Basedow F., Andersohn F., Walker J. Clinical outcomes and characteristics of patients hospitalized for Influenza or COVID-19 in Germany. Int J Infect Dis. 2021;103:316–322. - PMC - PubMed