COVID-19 Cases Characterization in an Automotive Industry Company, 2020-2021

• Autor(a) principal: Azevedo, João Araújo
• Data de Publicação: 2023
• Outros Autores: Lima, Ricardo, Cernadas, Rui
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: https://doi.org/10.25756/rpf.v14i2.297

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact at several levels, particularly on health care systems. Until 13th March, Direção-Geral da Saúde confirmed 814 257 SARS-CoV-2 cases. The purpose of this paper was to characterize the confirmed infection employees’ group.Material and Methods: This is a cross-sectional study, descriptive with an analytical component that aims to explain the relationship between demographic variables (gender, age), clinical (comorbidities, disease severity) and labor variables (work regime, access to work) and the incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in an industrial company in the period between March 2020 and March 2021. Workers with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection by March 2021 were invited to answer a questionnaire. A bivariate statistical analysis was performed. The variables studied were: gender, age, associated comorbidities (hypertension, diabetes mellitus, dyslipidemia, coronary artery disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, chronic kidney disease, chronic liver disease, and oncological disease), disease severity (asymptomatic, symptomatic without or with the need for hospitalization), context of the infection (family, work, social), work regime (fixed daytime shifts) and means of transport (individual, shared or public).Results: In the period under review, 266 positive cases of COVID-19 were registered in a universe of 2098 workers. The company has 79% of employees in rotating shifts. In this group there was an incidence of the disease of 12.57%, having been 13.10% in workers on a fixed day shift. The positive cases were aged between 19 and 64 years, with an average age of 37.28 years. Most positive cases showed symptoms but did not require hospitalization (77.44%). The mean number of days with symptoms was 13.92, with 45 days being the maximum number. About 27% of workers reported symptoms after clinical discharge. Dyslipidemia was the most prevalent comorbidity (7.52% of those infected). Arterial hypertension was present in 6.77% of the workers, diabetes mellitus in 2.63% and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in 1.88%. Of the study population, five employees reported a history of neoplasia, with 2 still undergoing treatments. Conclusion: In this study, a correlation was identified between age and maintenance of symptoms, with the more advanced the age of employees infected with SARS-CoV-2, the greater the probability of having symptoms for a longer period. The severity of the disease (asymptomatic, symptomatic without or with the need for hospitalization) was also related with the duration of the symptoms, and the more severe the clinical picture, the greater the likelihood that the symptoms would persist for longer.