tetano
Editor, Senior Moderator
Heliyon
. 2023 May;9(5):e15996.
doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e15996. Epub 2023 May 3. Evaluation of workplace infection prevention and control measures for COVID-19: A prospective cohort study in Japan
Kazushirou Kurogi[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Kazunori Ikegami[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Hajime Ando[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Ayako Hino[SUP] 2 [/SUP], Mayumi Tsuji[SUP] 3 [/SUP], Yu Igarashi[SUP] 4 [/SUP], Tomohisa Nagata[SUP] 5 [/SUP], Keiji Muramatsu[SUP] 6 [/SUP], Yoshihisa Fujino[SUP] 7 [/SUP]
Affiliations
Background: Encouraging the implementation of infection prevention and control (IPC) measures has been necessary to prevent workplace infections caused by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). However, the effectiveness of these measures in reducing infections has not been thoroughly evaluated. We evaluated employees' COVID-19 infection rates in relation to the implementation of IPC measures at their workplaces to identify effective workplace measures.
Methods: This prospective cohort study was conducted between December 2020 and December 2021 using Internet-based self-assessment questionnaires, with 11,982 participants included from the baseline. To estimate whether implementing workplace IPC measures was associated with COVID-19 incidence rates among participants, we estimated multivariate-adjusted relative risk (RR) using a log-binomial model.
Results: After adjusting for sex, age, education, household members, occupation-related factors, and personal preventive behaviors, requesting ill employees to refrain from going to work showed significantly lower COVID-19 infection rates than not requesting it (RR: 0.56, 95% CI: 0.34-0.91, p = 0.019).
Conclusions: Employees restricted from reporting to work when ill had significantly lower COVID-19 infection rates than those who did not follow this measure. The results indicated that not coming to work when ill was effective in reducing COVID-19 infections at the workplace. We suggest that companies proactively adopt this policy and encourage their employees to comply with it.
Keywords: COVID-19 infection; Infection control; Infection prevention; Prospective cohort study; Workplace evaluation.
. 2023 May;9(5):e15996.
doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e15996. Epub 2023 May 3. Evaluation of workplace infection prevention and control measures for COVID-19: A prospective cohort study in Japan
Kazushirou Kurogi[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Kazunori Ikegami[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Hajime Ando[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Ayako Hino[SUP] 2 [/SUP], Mayumi Tsuji[SUP] 3 [/SUP], Yu Igarashi[SUP] 4 [/SUP], Tomohisa Nagata[SUP] 5 [/SUP], Keiji Muramatsu[SUP] 6 [/SUP], Yoshihisa Fujino[SUP] 7 [/SUP]
Affiliations
- PMID: 37163163
- PMCID: PMC10156382
- DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e15996
Background: Encouraging the implementation of infection prevention and control (IPC) measures has been necessary to prevent workplace infections caused by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). However, the effectiveness of these measures in reducing infections has not been thoroughly evaluated. We evaluated employees' COVID-19 infection rates in relation to the implementation of IPC measures at their workplaces to identify effective workplace measures.
Methods: This prospective cohort study was conducted between December 2020 and December 2021 using Internet-based self-assessment questionnaires, with 11,982 participants included from the baseline. To estimate whether implementing workplace IPC measures was associated with COVID-19 incidence rates among participants, we estimated multivariate-adjusted relative risk (RR) using a log-binomial model.
Results: After adjusting for sex, age, education, household members, occupation-related factors, and personal preventive behaviors, requesting ill employees to refrain from going to work showed significantly lower COVID-19 infection rates than not requesting it (RR: 0.56, 95% CI: 0.34-0.91, p = 0.019).
Conclusions: Employees restricted from reporting to work when ill had significantly lower COVID-19 infection rates than those who did not follow this measure. The results indicated that not coming to work when ill was effective in reducing COVID-19 infections at the workplace. We suggest that companies proactively adopt this policy and encourage their employees to comply with it.
Keywords: COVID-19 infection; Infection control; Infection prevention; Prospective cohort study; Workplace evaluation.