TY - JOUR T1 - Occupational risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection: a nationwide register-based study of the Danish workforce during the COVID-19 pandemic, 2020–2021 JF - Occupational and Environmental Medicine JO - Occup Environ Med SP - 202 LP - 208 DO - 10.1136/oemed-2022-108713 VL - 80 IS - 4 AU - Jens Peter Ellekilde Bonde AU - Luise Moelenberg Begtrup AU - Johan Høy Jensen AU - Esben Meulengracht Flachs AU - Vivi Schlünssen AU - Henrik A Kolstad AU - Kristina Jakobsson AU - Christel Nielsen AU - Kerstin Nilsson AU - Lars Rylander AU - Andreas Vilhelmsson AU - Kajsa Kirstine Ugelvig Petersen AU - Sandra Soegaard Toettenborg Y1 - 2023/04/01 UR - http://oem.bmj.com/content/80/4/202.abstract N2 - Objective Most earlier studies on occupational risk of COVID-19 covering the entire workforce are based on relatively rare outcomes such as hospital admission and mortality. This study examines the incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection by occupational group based on real-time PCR (RT-PCR) tests.Methods The cohort includes 2.4 million Danish employees, 20–69 years of age. All data were retrieved from public registries. The incidence rate ratios (IRRs) of first-occurring positive RT-PCR test from week 8 of 2020 to week 50 of 2021 were computed by Poisson regression for each four-digit Danish Version of the International Standard Classification of Occupations job code with more than 100 male and 100 female employees (n=205). Occupational groups with low risk of workplace infection according to a job exposure matrix constituted the reference group. Risk estimates were adjusted by demographic, social and health characteristics including household size, completed COVID-19 vaccination, pandemic wave and occupation-specific frequency of testing.Results IRRs of SARS-CoV-2 infection were elevated in seven healthcare occupations and 42 occupations in other sectors, mainly social work activities, residential care, education, defence and security, accommodation and transportation. No IRRs exceeded 2.0. The relative risk in healthcare, residential care and defence/security declined across pandemic waves. Decreased IRRs were observed in 12 occupations.Discussion We observed a modestly increased risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection among employees in numerous occupations, indicating a large potential for preventive actions. Cautious interpretation of observed risk in specific occupations is needed because of methodological issues inherent in analyses of RT-PCR test results and because of multiple statistical tests.Data may be obtained from a third party and are not publicly available. The pseudonymised database used for the presented analyses is hosted by Statistics Denmark and is not publicly available. Permission to access the database can be granted by researchers at a research institution authorised by Statistics Denmark. On request, the corresponding author can assist interested researchers to gain access. ER -