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 Jun 6;12(6):e058369.
doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2021-058369.

Risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection among front-line healthcare workers in Northeast Brazil: a respondent-driven sampling approach

Maria de Fátima Pessoa Militão de Albuquerque  1 , Wayner Vieira de Souza  1 , Ulisses Ramos Montarroyos  2 , Cresio Romeu Pereira  3 , Cynthia Braga  4 , Thalia Velho Barreto de Araújo  5 , Ricardo Arraes de Alencar Ximenes  6 , Demócrito de Barros Miranda-Filho  2 , Celia Landmann Szwarcwald  7 , Paulo Roberto Borges de Souza-Junior  7 , Morgana Nascimento Xavier  1   8 , Clarice Neuenschwander Lins de Morais  9 , Gabriela Diniz Militao de Albuquerque  1 , Cristiane Bresani-Salvi  9 , Carolline Araújo Mariz  1   10 , Noemia Teixeira de Siqueira-Filha  11 , Jadson Mendonça Galindo  1 , Cláudio Luiz França-Neto  2 , Jessyka Mary Vasconcelos Barbosa  1 , Maria Amelia Sousa Mascena Veras  12 , Luana Nepomuceno Gondim Costa Lima  13 , Luciane Nascimento Cruz  14 , Carl Kendall  15   16 , Ligia Regina Franco Sansigolo Kerr  16 , Celina Maria Turchi Martelli  17
Affiliations

Risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection among front-line healthcare workers in Northeast Brazil: a respondent-driven sampling approach

Maria de Fátima Pessoa Militão de Albuquerque et al. BMJ Open. .

Abstract

Objectives: We assessed the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection, personal protective equipment (PPE) shortages and occurrence of biological accidents among front-line healthcare workers (HCW).

Design, setting and participants: Using respondent-driven sampling, the study recruited distinct categories of HCW attending suspected or confirmed patients with COVID-19 from May 2020 to February 2021, in the Recife metropolitan area, Northeast Brazil.

Outcome measures: The criterion to assess SARS-CoV-2 infection among HCW was a positive self-reported PCR test.

Results: We analysed 1525 HCW: 527 physicians, 471 registered nurses, 263 nursing assistants and 264 physical therapists. Women predominated in all categories (81.1%; 95% CI: 77.8% to 84.1%). Nurses were older with more comorbidities (hypertension and overweight/obesity) than the other staff. The overall prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection was 61.8% (95% CI: 55.7% to 67.5%) after adjustment for the cluster random effect, weighted by network, and the reference population size. Risk factors for a positive RT-PCR test were being a nursing assistant (OR adjusted: 2.56; 95% CI: 1.42 to 4.61), not always using all recommended PPE while assisting patients with COVID-19 (OR adj: 2.15; 95% CI: 1.02 to 4.53) and reporting a splash of biological fluid/respiratory secretion in the eyes (OR adj: 3.37; 95% CI: 1.10 to 10.34).

Conclusions: This study shows the high frequency of SARS-CoV2 infection among HCW presumably due to workplace exposures. In our setting, nursing assistant comprised the most vulnerable category. Our findings highlight the need for improving healthcare facility environments, specific training and supervision to cope with public health emergencies.

Keywords: Brazil; COVID-19; Healthcare Workers.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: None declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Respondent-driven sampling recruitment chains.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Frequencies of self-reported SARS-CoV-2 infection by healthcare categories.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Fauci AS, Lane HC, Redfield RR. Covid-19 - Navigating the Uncharted. N Engl J Med 2020;382:1268–9. 10.1056/NEJMe2002387 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Morens DM, Daszak P, Taubenberger JK. Escaping Pandora's Box - Another Novel Coronavirus. N Engl J Med 2020;382:1293–5. 10.1056/NEJMp2002106 - DOI - PubMed
    1. World Health Organization . Available: https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019 [Accessed January 28, 2021].
    1. Zeiser FA, Donida B, da Costa CA, et al. First and second COVID-19 waves in Brazil: a cross-sectional study of patients' characteristics related to hospitalization and in-hospital mortality. Lancet Reg Health Am 2022;6:100107. 10.1016/j.lana.2021.100107 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. The Lancet . COVID-19 in Brazil: “So what?”. The Lancet 2020;395:1461. 10.1016/S0140-6736(20)31095-3 - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types