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Observational Study
. 2023 Oct;44(10):1693-1696.
doi: 10.1017/ice.2023.47. Epub 2023 Apr 11.

Sickness presenteeism in healthcare workers during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic: An observational cohort study

Affiliations
Observational Study

Sickness presenteeism in healthcare workers during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic: An observational cohort study

Katherine Linsenmeyer et al. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol. 2023 Oct.

Abstract

Sickness presenteeism among healthcare workers (HCW) risks nosocomial infection, but its prevalence among HCW with COVID-19 is unknown. Contemporaneous interviews revealed a sickness presenteeism prevalence of 49.8% among 255 HCW with symptomatic COVID-19. Presenteeism prevalence did not differ among HCW with and without specific COVID-19 symptoms or direct patient care.

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Conflict of interest statement

M.E.C. reports having stock in Pfizer and Moderna and receiving royalties from UpToDate, both outside the scope of the submitted work. K.G. reports holding stock in Pfizer, Moderna, and Abbott Laboratories and receiving royalties from UpToDate, both outside the scope of the submitted work. The remaining authors have no conflicts to declare.

Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.
Days worked while symptomatic. Shown are the percentages of 255 HCW who worked the indicated number of days while symptomatic with COVID-19. Symptom profile was determined at the time of COVID-19 diagnosis. Data are stratified based on whether HCWs provided direct patient care or not. Those who worked 0 days while symptomatic (50.2%) were categorized as not having sickness presenteeism; the remainder (49.8%) were categorized as having sickness presenteeism. The prevalence of sickness presenteeism did not differ significantly between HCW with and without direct patient care.

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