Demographic and occupational determinants of anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG seropositivity in hospital staff
Martin, Christopher Patel, Prashanth Goss, Charles Jenkins, David Price, Arthur Barton, Linda Gupta, Pankaj Zaccardi, Francesco Jerina, Helen Duraisingham, Sai
Martin, Christopher
Patel, Prashanth
Goss, Charles
Jenkins, David
Price, Arthur
Barton, Linda
Gupta, Pankaj
Zaccardi, Francesco
Jerina, Helen
Duraisingham, Sai
Abstract
Background
Although evidence suggests that demographic characteristics including minority ethnicity increase the risk of infection with Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), it is unclear whether these characteristics, together with occupational factors, influence anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG seroprevalence in hospital staff.
Methods
We conducted cross-sectional surveillance examining seroprevalence of anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG amongst staff at University Hospitals of Leicester (UHL) NHS Trust. We quantified seroprevalence stratified by ethnicity, occupation and seniority of practitioner and used logistic regression to examine demographic and occupational factors associated with seropositivity.
Results
A total of 1148/10662 (10.8%) hospital staff members were seropositive. Compared to White staff (seroprevalence 9.1%), seroprevalence was higher in South Asian (12.3%) and Black (21.2%) staff. The occupations and department with the highest seroprevalence were nurses/healthcare assistants (13.7%) and the Emergency Department (ED)/Acute Medicine (17.5%), respectively. Seroprevalence decreased with seniority in medical/nursing practitioners. Minority ethnicity was associated with seropositivity on an adjusted analysis (South Asian: aOR 1.26; 95%CI: 1.07–1.49 and Black: 2.42; 1.90–3.09). Anaesthetics/ICU staff members were less likely to be seropositive than ED/Acute medicine staff (0.41; 0.27–0.61).
Conclusions
Ethnicity and occupational factors, including specialty and seniority, are associated with seropositivity for anti-SARS-Cov-2 IgG. These findings could be used to inform occupational risk assessments for front-line healthcare workers.
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Martin, C. A., Patel, P., Goss, C., Jenkins, D. R., Price, A., Barton, L., Gupta, P., Zaccardi, F., Jerina, H., Duraisingham, S., Brunskill, N. J., Khunti, K., & Pareek, M. (2022). Demographic and occupational determinants of anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG seropositivity in hospital staff. Journal of public health (Oxford, England), 44(2), 234–245.