Risk Factors for COVID-19 Infection among Healthcare Workers in North-East Nigeria

Abstract

Healthcare workers (HCWs) face an unprecedented higher risk of COVID-19 infection due to their work and exposure. In this study, we aim to examine the associated risk factors for COVID-19 infection among HCWs in North-East Nigeria. We used data collected retrospectively among a cohort of clinical and non-clinical HCWs in six healthcare facilities in Adamawa State, Nigeria. We estimated the marginal probability of COVID-19 infection among HWCs using alternating logistic regression via the generalized estimating equations (GEE) approach. Among the 318 HCWs, 178 (55.97%) were males, mean (±SD) age was 36.81 (±8.98), 237 (74.76%) were clinical, and 80 (25.24) were non-clinical staff. The overall prevalence of COVID-19 was 16.67% among HCWs. After adjusting for other variables in the model, our results showed that clinical staff had a 5-fold higher risk of COVID-19 infection than non-clinical staff (aOR = 5.07, 95% CI: 1.32–19.52). Moreover, significant exposure risk factors for COVID-19 infection for HCWs increase with age, time spent attending to patients, caring for COVID-19 patients, and having worked with COVID-19 samples, while the risk decreases with the use of an N95 mask. Our findings suggested that the burden of COVID-19 infection is higher for clinical staff than non-clinical staff, and increasing age contributed to the increased risk.

Prevalence and Factors Associated with Covid-19 Infection and Mortality Among Frontline Healthcare Workers in Kaduna State

“…The finding of this study shows a low prevalence of COVID-19 infection among HCWs when compared with the general population, just like the findings of similar studies conducted in Qatar, the US, and global [12][13][14][15][16] that corroborated the low prevalence of COVID-19 infection among HCWs. This study further showed a statistically significant finding that the prevalence of COVID-19 infection was twice as much higher during the pre-vaccination period compared to that of the post-vaccination period (χ 2 = 41.446, p < 0.001).…”

“…Furthermore, as found by other researchers, [16] a higher prevalence of COVID-19 infection was noted among females, and this could be attributable to the fact that the proportion of female HCWs in the study population is much higher than that of males. Conversely, other reports have either a higher risk of COVID-19 infection among males, [29] or a gender difference in COVID-19 infection risk [8,12].…”

Primary healthcare workers’ COVID-19 infection status following implementation of adjusted epidemic prevention and control strategies: a cross-sectional study in Jiangsu, China

“…However, after accounting for confounding factors, no discernible association surfaced between professions and COVID-19 infection among primary HCWs, aligning with other studies (20,33). While other research (5,(34)(35)(36)(37) has demonstrated that frontline HCWs in close proximity to COVID-19 patients encounter significantly greater infection risks, our study did not yield this evidence. This could be attributed to the release of the "Ten New Rules" in China, which eliminated the requirement for centralized isolation for positive patients, opting for home isolation whenever possible.…”

The evolution of workplace risk for Covid‐19 in Canadian healthcare workers and its relation to vaccination: A nested case‐referent study

“…[4][5][6] Later studies that included HCWs beyond the first wave of infection had to consider also the impact of vaccination and previous infection on risk. [7][8][9][10] From studies to date, the main risk factor identified for workplace transmission is contact with patients with Covid-19, identified in multiple studies, with the use of respiratory protection [11][12][13][14][15] and vaccination 16,17 mitigating that risk. 18 The excess Covid-19 mortality seen in HCWs in the United Kingdom in the period to September 2020 was no longer evident in later time periods, presumably reflecting rapid access to vaccinations and improved infection controls at the workplace.…”