RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Occupation and risk of severe COVID-19: prospective cohort study of 120 075 UK Biobank participants
JF Occupational and Environmental Medicine
JO Occup Environ Med
FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd
SP 307
OP 314
DO 10.1136/oemed-2020-106731
VO 78
IS 5
A1 Mutambudzi, Miriam
A1 Niedzwiedz, Claire
A1 Macdonald, Ewan Beaton
A1 Leyland, Alastair
A1 Mair, Frances
A1 Anderson, Jana
A1 Celis-Morales, Carlos
A1 Cleland, John
A1 Forbes, John
A1 Gill, Jason
A1 Hastie, Claire
A1 Ho, Frederick
A1 Jani, Bhautesh
A1 Mackay, Daniel F
A1 Nicholl, Barbara
A1 O'Donnell, Catherine
A1 Sattar, Naveed
A1 Welsh, Paul
A1 Pell, Jill P
A1 Katikireddi, Srinivasa Vittal
A1 Demou, Evangelia
YR 2021
UL http://oem.bmj.com/content/78/5/307.abstract
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 <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.Data may be obtained from a third party and are not publicly available. This research has been conducted using the UK Biobank Resource (https://www.ukbiobank.ac.uk/; application No 41686 & 17333).