TY - JOUR
AU - Mutambudzi, Miriam
AU - Niedzwiedz, Claire L.
AU - Macdonald, Ewan B.
AU - Leyland, Alastair H.
AU - Mair, Frances S.
AU - Anderson, Jana J.
AU - Celis-Morales, Carlos A.
AU - Cleland, John G.F.
AU - Forbes, John F.
AU - Gill, Jason M.R.
AU - Hastie, Claire E.
AU - Ho, Frederick K.
AU - Jani, Bhautesh D.
AU - Mackay, Daniel F.
AU - Nicholl, Barbara I.
AU - O'Donnell, Catherine A.
AU - Sattar, Naveed
AU - Welsh, Paul
AU - Pell, Jill P.
AU - Katikireddi, Srinivasa Vittal
AU - Demou, Evangelia
PY - 2020
DA - December
TI - Occupation and risk of severe COVID-19: prospective cohort study of 120 075 UK Biobank participants
JO - Occupational and Environmental Medicine
EP - 314
VL - 78
IS - 5
DO - http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/oemed-2020-106731
AB - Objectives: To investigate severe COVID-19 risk by occupational group. Methods: Baseline UK Biobank data (2006–10) for England were linked to SARS-CoV-2 test results from Public Health England (16 March to 26 July 2020). Included participants were employed or self-employed at baseline, alive and aged &lt;65 years in 2020. Poisson regression models were adjusted sequentially for baseline demographic, socioeconomic, work-related, health, and lifestyle-related risk factors to assess risk ratios (RRs) for testing positive in hospital or death due to COVID-19 by three occupational classification schemes (including Standard Occupation Classification (SOC) 2000). Results: Of 120 075 participants, 271 had severe COVID-19. Relative to non-essential workers, healthcare workers (RR 7.43, 95% CI 5.52 to 10.00), social and education workers (RR 1.84, 95% CI 1.21 to 2.82) and other essential workers (RR 1.60, 95% CI 1.05 to 2.45) had a higher risk of severe COVID-19. Using more detailed groupings, medical support staff (RR 8.70, 95% CI 4.87 to 15.55), social care (RR 2.46, 95% CI 1.47 to 4.14) and transport workers (RR 2.20, 95% CI 1.21 to 4.00) had the highest risk within the broader groups. Compared with white non-essential workers, non-white non-essential workers had a higher risk (RR 3.27, 95% CI 1.90 to 5.62) and non-white essential workers had the highest risk (RR 8.34, 95% CI 5.17 to 13.47). Using SOC 2000 major groups, associate professional and technical occupations, personal service occupations and plant and machine operatives had a higher risk, compared with managers and senior officials. Conclusions: Essential workers have a higher risk of severe COVID-19. These findings underscore the need for national and organisational policies and practices that protect and support workers with an elevated risk of severe COVID-19.
PB - BMJ Publishing Group
UR - http://eprints.gla.ac.uk/225950/
KW - Coronavirus (COVID-19)
ER