Risk Factors for COVID-19 in a Retired FDNY WTC-Exposed Cohort

Krystal L. Cleven, Rachel Zeig-Owens, David G. Goldfarb, Theresa Schwartz and David J. Prezant
Additional contact information
Krystal L. Cleven: Pulmonary Medicine Division, Department of Medicine, Montefiore Medical Center and Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY 10467, USA
Rachel Zeig-Owens: Pulmonary Medicine Division, Department of Medicine, Montefiore Medical Center and Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY 10467, USA
David G. Goldfarb: Pulmonary Medicine Division, Department of Medicine, Montefiore Medical Center and Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY 10467, USA
Theresa Schwartz: Pulmonary Medicine Division, Department of Medicine, Montefiore Medical Center and Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY 10467, USA
David J. Prezant: Pulmonary Medicine Division, Department of Medicine, Montefiore Medical Center and Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY 10467, USA

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 15, 1-8

Abstract: We evaluated the incidence and risk factors for COVID-19 in a prospectively followed cohort of Fire Department of the City of New York (FDNY) World Trade Center (WTC)-exposed workers, thus reducing the potential for selection bias, a limitation in published studies of hospitalized individuals. Participants were retired FDNY WTC-exposed rescue/recovery workers with ≥1 medical visit between 1 March 2020 and 1 August 2021. The cumulative incidence was calculated using self-reported COVID-19 diagnoses. Cox regression was performed to evaluate the association of WTC-exposure and COVID-19, adjusting for history of comorbidities, age, race, work assignment (emergency medical service providers vs. firefighter), and sex. The cumulative incidence of COVID-19 was 130 per 1000. The adjusted models showed the risk of infection was greater in those with highest WTC exposure versus less exposure (hazard ratio (HR) = 1.14 (95% CI 1.00–1.31)). Older age was associated with a lower risk of infection HR = 0.97 (95% CI 0.96–0.98). WTC-associated diseases (obstructive airways disease and interstitial lung disease) were not COVID-19 risk factors. This study is the first to show an association between WTC exposure and the risk of COVID-19. While participants are retired from FDNY work, the youngest individuals may still be in the workforce, explaining why younger age was a significant risk for COVID-19.

Keywords: World Trade Center; COVID-19; FDNY; Fire Department of City of New York (FDNY); occupational lung disease (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/15/8891/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/15/8891/ (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:2022:i:15:p:8891-:d:868707

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 ().