PLoS ONE (Jan 2021)

Healthcare workers hospitalized due to COVID-19 have no higher risk of death than general population. Data from the Spanish SEMI-COVID-19 Registry.

  • Jesús Díez-Manglano,
  • Marta Nataya Solís-Marquínez,
  • Andrea Álvarez García,
  • Nicolás Alcalá-Rivera,
  • Irene Maderuelo Riesco,
  • Martín Gericó Aseguinolaza,
  • José Luis Beato Pérez,
  • Manuel Méndez Bailón,
  • Ane-Elbire Labirua-Iturburu Ruiz,
  • Miriam García Gómez,
  • Carmen Martínez Cilleros,
  • Paula María Pesqueira Fontan,
  • Lucy Abella Vázquez,
  • Julio César Blázquez Encinar,
  • Ramon Boixeda,
  • Ricardo Gil Sánchez,
  • Andrés de la Peña Fernández,
  • José Loureiro Amigo,
  • Joaquín Escobar Sevilla,
  • Marcos Guzmán Garcia,
  • María Dolores Martín Escalante,
  • Jeffrey Oskar Magallanes Gamboa,
  • Ángel Luis Martínez González,
  • Carlos Lumbreras Bermejo,
  • Juan Miguel Antón Santos,
  • SEMI-COVID-19 Network

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0247422
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 16, no. 2
p. e0247422

Abstract

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AimTo determine whether healthcare workers (HCW) hospitalized in Spain due to COVID-19 have a worse prognosis than non-healthcare workers (NHCW).MethodsObservational cohort study based on the SEMI-COVID-19 Registry, a nationwide registry that collects sociodemographic, clinical, laboratory, and treatment data on patients hospitalised with COVID-19 in Spain. Patients aged 20-65 years were selected. A multivariate logistic regression model was performed to identify factors associated with mortality.ResultsAs of 22 May 2020, 4393 patients were included, of whom 419 (9.5%) were HCW. Median (interquartile range) age of HCW was 52 (15) years and 62.4% were women. Prevalence of comorbidities and severe radiological findings upon admission were less frequent in HCW. There were no difference in need of respiratory support and admission to intensive care unit, but occurrence of sepsis and in-hospital mortality was lower in HCW (1.7% vs. 3.9%; p = 0.024 and 0.7% vs. 4.8%; pConclusionsHospitalized COVID-19 HCW had fewer comorbidities and a better prognosis than NHCW. Our results suggest that professional exposure to COVID-19 in HCW does not carry more clinical severity nor mortality.