Lost years of life adjusted for disability (DALY) among nursing professionals due to COVID-19 infection in Brazil

• Autor(a) principal: Silva, Roberto
• Data de Publicação: 2020
• Outros Autores: Silva, Carlos, Machado, Daniel, Peregrino, Antônio, Marta, Cristiano, Pestana, Luana, Pessanha, Cássio, Vianna, Elaine, Meireles, Isabella
• Tipo de documento: preprint
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: SciELO Preprints
• Texto Completo: https://preprints.scielo.org/index.php/scielo/preprint/view/414
• topic: COVID-19; Carga da Doença; Enfermagem; DALY; COVID-19; Burden of Disease; Nursing; DALY

Introduction: Worldwide, the COVID-19 epidemic affects thousands of people with devastating effects on the health sector and negative impacts on the health care workforce. The burden of disease attributable to COVID-19 infection among health professionals at the forefront of combating the disease, hitherto unknown, should guide policies for coping with the pandemic, considering the particularities of each professional category and regionalities. The research question is: What is the burden of COVID-19 infection among nursing professionals in Brazil? Objectives: To estimate the disease burden attributable to COVID-19 infection among nursing professionals, to estimate the years of life lost due to premature mortality (YLLs), to estimate the years lost due to disability (YLD) and to estimate the adjusted years of life due to disability (DALY). Method: This is an ecological study, where the set of individuals is the unit of analysis. Data on mortality, morbidity and expectations by age group of nursing professionals registered at the Nursing Observatory of the Federal Council of Nursing (COFEn) until May 5, 2020 and at the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) were used. to the year 2018, respectively. The prevalence of the disease, the Years of Life Lost (YLL) and the Years Lived with Disability (YLD) were estimated. The sum of these last two, made it possible to estimate the Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALY). The weight of the diseases was extracted from the 2017 Global Disease Burden Study (GBD), considering the lower respiratory tract infection to be moderate. The analysis considered the distribution according to professional category, sex and age group. Results: 91 deaths and 10,748 professionals diagnosed with COVID-19 were analyzed. The prevalence of the disease was 0,046% with a lethality rate of 0,85%. Between March 20 and May 5, Brazilian nursing lost 498,13 DALY (95% CI 438,62 - 557,64). Of these, 81.04% were due to premature death. The rate of DALY lost per 1000 professionals standardized by age was 216,02. DALY was higher among professionals aged 31 - 40 years old (901,36 DALY). The YLD was higher among women (453,70 YLD and rate of 1,37 / thousand) and among Nursing Technicians (217,01 YLD and rate of 164,37 / thousand). The female sex represented 82,76% of the total of DALY. In this group, the YLD rate was 27,5 times higher than in the male population. Conclusion: Almost 500 DALY were lost in Brazil due to COVID-19 infection among nursing professionals, essentially due to premature mortality. This study allows comparing the disease burden with other professionals, between regions and other countries, emphasizing, however, the need for population-based studies for each health professional that provide specific information on morbidity, to guide and inform decisions about implementing measures to reduce the disease burden and improve outcomes related to COVID-19.