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. 2023 May 31:11:1156782.
doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1156782. eCollection 2023.

Risk factors for SARS-CoV-2 infection among health workers in India: a case control study

Leyanna Susan George  1   2 , Chitra Tomy  1 , Charutha Retnakumar  1 , Uday Narlawar  3 , Pankaj Bhardwaj  4 , Jayasree Krishnan  5 , R L Lakshman Rao  6 , Prakash Patel  7 , Anil S Bilimale  8 , Poornima Baby  9 , Minu Maria Mathew  1 , Alessandro Cassini  10 , Alice Simniceanu  10 , Mo Yin  10 , Benedetta Allegranzi  10 , Mohammed Ahmad  11 , Anisur Rahman  12 , Syed Ahmed Mohiuddin  6 , Sushama Thakre  13 , Suman Suman Bhansali  14 , Rajaat Vohra  15 , Hari Krishnan  5 , M Logaraj  16 , Vaishali Maheriya  17 , Vaibhav Gharat  18 , T S Dipu  18 , Hilda Solomon  5 , Sarita Sharma  3 , M Shwethashree  8 , Rahul Hegde  19 , Mohammad Waseem Faraz Ansari  20 , Sanjeev Misra  21
Affiliations

Risk factors for SARS-CoV-2 infection among health workers in India: a case control study

Leyanna Susan George et al. Front Public Health. .

Abstract

Background: COVID-19 was declared as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on 30th January 2020. Compared to the general population, healthcare workers and their families have been identified to be at a higher risk of getting infected with COVID-19. Therefore, it is crucial to understand the risk factors responsible for the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 infection among health workers in different hospital settings and to describe the range of clinical presentations of SARS-CoV-2 infection among them.

Methodology: A nested case-control study was conducted among healthcare workers who were involved in the care of COVID-19 cases for assessing the risk factors associated with it. To get a holistic perspective, the study was conducted in 19 different hospitals from across 7 states (Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat, and Rajasthan) of India covering the major government and private hospitals that were actively involved in COVID-19 patient care. The study participants who were not vaccinated were enrolled using the incidence density sampling technique from December 2020 to December 2021.

Results: A total of 973 health workers consisting of 345 cases and 628 controls were recruited for the study. The mean age of the participants was observed to be 31.17 ± 8.5 years, with 56.3% of them being females. On multivariate analysis, the factors that were found to be significantly associated with SARS-CoV-2 were age of more than 31 years (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 1.407 [95% CI 1.53-1.880]; p = 0.021), male gender (aOR 1.342 [95% CI 1.019-1.768]; p = 0.036), practical mode of IPC training on personal protective equipment (aOR 1. 1.935 [95% CI 1.148-3.260]; p = 0.013), direct exposure to COVID-19 patient (aOR 1.413 [95% CI 1.006-1.985]; p = 0.046), presence of diabetes mellitus (aOR 2.895 [95% CI 1.079-7.770]; p = 0.035) and those received prophylactic treatment for COVID-19 in the last 14 days (aOR 1.866 [95% CI 0.201-2.901]; p = 0.006).

Conclusion: The study was able to highlight the need for having a separate hospital infection control department that implements IPC programs regularly. The study also emphasizes the need for developing policies that address the occupational hazards faced by health workers.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; comorbidities; health worker; nested case–control study.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Distribution of cases based on symptoms on day 1 and day 21.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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