COVID-19 in Turkish health care workers practicing chest medicine

• Autor(a) principal: Sandal,Abdulsamet
• Data de Publicação: 2021
• Outros Autores: Toreyin,Zehra Nur, Salturk,Cuneyt, Arbak,Peri Meram
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Revista da Associação Médica Brasileira (Online)
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0104-42302021001101472
• topic: COVID-19; Occupational health; Health personnel; Occupational medicine; Occupational diseases

SUMMARY OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to evaluate the data of Turkish health care workers practicing chest medicine on their coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) status and related parameters. METHODS: This descriptive study included online survey data that the Turkish Thoracic Society conducted with its members in two phases starting in June and December 2020. The 33-item survey included demographic data, smoking status, the presence of any chronic diseases, occupation, working status, and non–work-related and work-related COVID-19 exposure characteristics. RESULTS: Of 742 responses, 299 (40.3%) reported that they had contracted COVID-19. The second survey detected a higher frequency of health care workers who had contracted COVID-19 (12.1% versus 57.4%, p<0.001) than the first survey. The analysis of the association between study parameters and COVID-19 in health care workers using logistic regression revealed statistical significance with working at the onset of the outbreak (OR 3.76, 95%CI 1.09–12.98, p=0.036), not working at the time of survey (OR 5.69, 95%CI 3.35–9.67, p<0.001), COVID-19 history in colleagues (OR 2.27, 95%CI 1.51–3.41, p<0.001), any non–work-related COVID-19 exposure (OR 4.72, 95%CI 2.74–8.14, p<0.001), COVID-19 exposure at home (OR 6.52, 95%CI 3.52–12.08, p<0.001), and COVID-19 history in family members (OR 8.16, 95%CI 5.52–12.08, p<0.001) after adjusting for age and sex. The study also observed an inverse relationship between the use of aprons and goggles and COVID-19 in health care workers. CONCLUSION: Occupational and nonoccupational characteristics are related to COVID-19 in health care workers practicing chest medicine. Therefore, active surveillance to detect health care workers contracting COVID-19 and to document and control occupational and nonoccupational risks should be provided.