PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Martin, Christopher A
AU  - Woolf, Katherine
AU  - Bryant, Luke
AU  - Goss, Charles
AU  - Gogoi, Mayuri
AU  - Lagrata, Susie
AU  - Papineni, Padmasayee
AU  - Qureshi, Irtiza
AU  - Wobi, Fatimah
AU  - Nellums, Laura
AU  - Khunti, Kamlesh
AU  - Pareek, Manish
ED  - ,
TI  - Coverage, completion and outcomes of COVID-19 risk assessments in a multi-ethnic nationwide cohort of UK healthcare workers: a cross-sectional analysis from the UK-REACH Study
AID  - 10.1136/oemed-2022-108700
DP  - 2023 May 23
TA  - Occupational and Environmental Medicine
PG  - oemed-2022-108700
4099  - http://oem.bmj.com/content/early/2023/05/23/oemed-2022-108700.short
4100  - http://oem.bmj.com/content/early/2023/05/23/oemed-2022-108700.full
AB  - Introduction There are limited data on the outcomes of COVID-19 risk assessment in healthcare workers (HCWs) or the association of ethnicity, other sociodemographic and occupational factors with risk assessment outcomes.Methods We used questionnaire data from UK-REACH (UK Research study into Ethnicity And COVID-19 outcomes in Healthcare workers), an ethnically diverse, nationwide cohort of UK HCWs. We derived four binary outcomes: (1) offered a risk assessment; (2) completed a risk assessment; (3) working practices changed as a result of the risk assessment; (4) wanted changes to working practices after risk assessment but working practices did not change.We examined the association of ethnicity, other sociodemographic/occupational factors and actual/perceived COVID-19 risk variables on our outcomes using multivariable logistic regression.Results 8649 HCWs were included in total. HCWs from ethnic minority groups were more likely to report being offered a risk assessment than white HCWs, and those from Asian and black ethnic groups were more likely to report having completed an assessment if offered. Ethnic minority HCWs had lower odds of reporting having their work change as a result of risk assessment. Those from Asian and black ethnic groups were more likely to report no changes to their working practices despite wanting them.Previous SARS-CoV-2 infection was associated with lower odds of being offered a risk assessment and having adjustments made to working practices.Discussion We found differences in risk assessment outcomes by ethnicity, other sociodemographic/occupational factors and actual/perceived COVID-19 risk factors. These findings are concerning and warrant further research using actual (rather than reported) risk assessment outcomes in an unselected cohort.Data are available upon reasonable request. To access data or samples produced by the UK-REACH Study, the working group representative must first submit a request to the Core Management Group by contacting the UK-REACH Project Manager in the first instance. For ancillary studies outside of the core deliverables, the Steering Committee will make final decisions once they have been approved by the Core Management Group. Decisions on granting the access to data/materials will be made within 8 weeks. Third-party requests from outside the project will require explicit approval of the Steering Committee once approved by the Core Management Group. Note that should there be significant numbers of requests to access data and/or samples, then a separate Data Access Committee will be convened to appraise requests in the first instance.