Prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 Infection in a Sample of Health Workers in Two Health Departments of the Valencian Community in Spain

Kenan Rodríguez de Limia Ramírez, Nicolás Ruiz-Robledillo, José Luis Duro-Torrijos, Vicente García-Román, Natalia Albaladejo-Blázquez and Rosario Ferrer-Cascales
Additional contact information
Kenan Rodríguez de Limia Ramírez: Human Resources Service, University Hospital of Vinalopó, 03293 Elche, Spain
Nicolás Ruiz-Robledillo: Department of Health Psychology, University of Alicante, 03690 Alicante, Spain
José Luis Duro-Torrijos: Research and Teaching Service, University Hospital of Vinalopó, 03293 Elche, Spain
Vicente García-Román: Preventive Medicine Service, University Hospital of Vinalopó, 03293 Elche, Spain
Natalia Albaladejo-Blázquez: Department of Health Psychology, University of Alicante, 03690 Alicante, Spain
Rosario Ferrer-Cascales: Department of Health Psychology, University of Alicante, 03690 Alicante, Spain

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 19, issue 1, 1-13

Abstract: Health care personnel constitutes the most vulnerable group of professionals, as they are employed in a work context with higher exposure to SARS-CoV-2 infection. This study aims to estimate the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in health personnel ( n = 2858) of two health departments in the Valencian community between March 2020 and April 2021, as well as the sociodemographic and work variables predicting higher infection prevalence in this group. A cross-sectional descriptive study was performed on health workers from the health departments of Torrevieja and Elche-Crevillente of the Valencian Community (Spain). After obtaining the samples, the cases were identified through an active infection diagnostic test (AIDT). The analyzed variables were: sex, age (18–34/35–49/>50 years), professional category, health care, risk service, and AIDT. A total of 2858 staff members were studied. Of them, 55.4% (1582) underwent an AIDT, with 9.7% (277) of positive cases. Infection predominated in the age group of 18 to 34 years, 12.6% (OR = 1.98, 95% CI [1.26, 3.11]); nurses, 12.1% (OR = 1.5, 95% CI [1.00, 2.23]); and at-risk services, 11.4% (OR = 1.3, 95% CI [1.06, 1.81]). A very low positivity rate was identified in the health personnel linked to the health departments analyzed during the 14 months of the study period. Based on our results, prevention strategies could focus more intensively on the most at-risk groups, specifically young nurses who work in at-risk services, mainly in emergency and internal medicine.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; healthcare workers; active infection diagnostic test (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/1/66/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/1/66/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2021:i:1:p:66-:d:708374

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().