TABLE 1.
Description of epidemiological studies relating occupational risks of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) hospitalisation and mortality
| Reference | Data source | Outcome effect measure | Age range (years) | National region | Time periods | Reference group | Maximum adjustment set |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Airoldi et al. [ 15 ] | Private healthcare centre testing (Centro Polispecialistico Privato Medicina del Lavoro) | Seroprevalence proportion and 95% confidence intervals | <20–>80 (working age) | Italy | Wave one: April–August 2020 | Population average | None |
| Ballering et al. [ 24 ] | Dutch Lifelines cohort study and Lifelines COVID-19 cohort | Infection odds ratio | Over 18 | Netherlands | March–August 2020 | People who were neither healthcare nor education workers | Age, sex, education, chronic disease, disease-prevention behaviour, household members |
| Beale et al. [ 16 ] | Virus Watch cohort | Infection risk ratios | 16 and over | England and Wales | Waves one and two: February 2020–May 2021 Wave three: June–November 2021 Wave four: December 2021–April 2022 |
Other professional and associate occupations | Age, sex, ethnic group, deprivation, health, income, household size |
| Biarnés-Martínez et al. [ 25 ] | Catalonia primary care database and centralised database of diagnostic tests | Infection cumulative incidence | 16–65 | Spain | 1 March 2020–16 September 2021 | Nonhealthcare workers | Age and sex |
| Billingsley et al. [ 28 ] | Swedish administrative and population registers linked to cause of death register | Mortality hazard ratios | 20–66 | Sweden | 12 March 2020–23 February 2021 | Skilled workers in IT, economics or administration | Age, sex, living in Stockholm, country of birth, highest achieved educational degree and individual net income |
| Bonde et al. [ 26 ] | All Danish employees from records in the work classification module at Statistics Denmark, as a subset of the Danish occupational cohort with exposure data | Incidence rate ratio for counts of COVID-19 hospital admissions if a SARS-CoV-2 PCR swab test was positive up to 14 days prior to admission and if the hospital stay was >12 h | 20–69 at 1 January 2020 | Denmark | 1 January 2020–14 December 2021 | Occupations classified to the lowest level of potential occupational exposure to SARS-CoV-2 by an expert-rated COVID-19 JEM | Adjustment for sex, age, duration of education, number of hospital admissions for one or more of 11 chronic diseases in the 10 years preceding start of the pandemic, country of origin, geographical region, number of household members, probability of tobacco smoking, BMI, family positive PCR swab test (at least one member of the family besides the index person with positive PCR test during the previous 2–3 weeks, yes/no) and COVID-19 vaccination (from date of second vaccination until end of follow-up) |
| Bonde et al. [ 17 ] | Nationwide register-based cohort of all Danish residents | Incidence rate ratios for infection | 20–69 | Denmark | Week 8 of 2020–week 50 of 2021 Data split into four waves but time periods not specified | Low-level exposed employees according to a COVID-19 JEM | Sex, age, education, chronic disease, country of birth, region, household members, smoking, BMI, COVID-19 vaccination and occupational test frequency |
| Cherrie et al. [ 29 ] # | ONS mortality database of all registered deaths | Proportionate mortality odds ratios | 20–64 | England and Wales | Wave one: January–September 2020 Wave two: October 2020–May 2021 Wave three: June–October 2021 Wave four: January–June 2022# |
Nonessential workers | Age, sex, deprivation, region, urban/rural and population density |
| Green and Semple [ 18 ] | ONS CIS: a cohort using random sampling designed to be representative of UK population | Infection odds ratio | Over 18 | UK | August 2020–January 2021 | ICT workers | Age, gender, ethnic group, travel abroad, household size, geographical area and month |
| Magnusson et al. [ 19 ] | Beredt C19 database with national surveillance data linked to population registry and employee registry | Infection odds ratio | 20–70 | Norway | 6 February–17 July 2020 and 18 July–18 December 2020 | Other individuals of working age | Age, sex, own and maternal country of birth, and marital status |
| Matz et al. [30, 49] | ONS mortality database of all registered deaths | Excess mortality | 20–64 | England and Wales | 2020–2021 | Same group over previous 5 years | None |
| Mutambudzi et al. [ 27 ] | Baseline UK biobank data 2006–2010 linked to SARS-CoV-2 test results from Public Health England | Risk ratio for severe COVID-19 defined as hospital admission with positive SARS-CoV-2 or death with COVID-19 as contributing cause | 50–65 in 2020 | England | 16 March–26 July 2020 | Nonessential workers | Age, sex, assessment centre, country of birth, ethnicity, area-level socioeconomic deprivation quartile and education level, shift work, manual work, job tenure, and work hours, number of chronic conditions, longstanding illness/disability, and lifestyle-related factors (BMI, smoking and alcohol) |
| Nafilyan et al. [ 31 ] | ONS mortality database linked to 2010 census | Mortality hazard ratios | 40–64 | England and Wales | 24 January–28 December 2020 | Nonessential workers | Sex, age, region, population density and urban/rural classification, index of multiple deprivation decile group, household deprivation, social grade, household tenancy, type of accommodation, household size, multigenerational household, household with children, BMI, CKD, learning disability, cancer and immunosuppression, and other conditions |
| Nwaru et al. [ 20 ] | Swedish national database of notifiable diseases and healthcare utilisation | Infection hazard ratio | 20–65 | Sweden | January 2020–February 2021 | Nonessential workers | Age, gender, marital status, immigration status, healthcare region and pre-existing conditions |
| Reuter et al. [ 21 ] | German national cohort (NAKO) | Infection incidence rate ratio | Currently employed | Germany | February–August 2020 | Nonessential workers | Age, sex, migration background, study centre, weekly working hours and self-employed status |
| Rhodes et al. [ 22 ] # | ONS CIS: a cohort using random sampling designed to be representative of UK population | Infection hazard ratio | 20–64 | England, Scotland and Wales | Waves one and two: April 2020–February 2021 Wave three: March–December 2021 Wave four: January–August 2022 |
Nonessential workers | Age, sex, ethnicity, deprivation, region, household size, urban/rural neighbourhood and current health conditions |
| Verbeeck et al. [ 23 ] | National registry of confirmed COVID-19 cases linked to Dimona database of active employees | 14-day incidence of infection | Active employees | Belgium | 29 September–12 October 2020 and 16–19 October 2020 | Average over all sectors | Unclear |
BMI: body mass index; CIS: Coronavirus Infection Survey; CKD: chronic kidney disease; ICT: information and communication technology; IT: information technology; JEM: job exposure matrix; ONS: Office for National Statistics. #: including additional data on later waves provided in [50].