Using 2022-2023 data from the Spanish population-based COVICAT study, the researchers examined COVID-19 risk factors by work environment and occupations. Among the cohort’s nearly 2,100 workers (ages 40-69) with a previously confirmed COVID-19 infection, 23.7% developed long COVID – defined as having at least one symptom persisting for three months or more after infection. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that symptoms and conditions “can range from mild to severe, may require comprehensive care, and can even result in a disability.”
The workers in occupations considered “high risk” had a 44% higher likelihood of developing long COVID compared with those in “low risk” jobs. Higher-risk occupations, which involved working in close contact with other people throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, included health care and social workers, teachers, retail workers, security staff, and transport workers.
The researchers also found that weakened immune responses caused by high physical demands or workplace stress were linked to increased viral exposures. Workplace factors tied to increased risk: working onsite (57% greater risk), inconsistent use of high-filtration respirators (52%) and regularly commuting via public transportation (58%).
“Since occupational risk factors are modifiable, our findings mean that much of the associated long COVID burden could be avoided with targeted measures,” according to study co-author Manolis Kogevinas, a physician at the ISGlobal Barcelona Institute for Global Health.
Such measures include “adequate personal protective equipment, mask use, and strategies to reduce close contact, not only for preventing infection, but also for mitigating long-term health consequences.”
The study was published in the journal BMJ Occupational & Environmental Medicine.
