TY - JOUR
T1 - Exposure to a SARS-CoV-2 infection at work
T2 - development of an international job exposure matrix (COVID-19-JEM)
AU - Oude Hengel, Karen M
AU - Burdorf, Alex
AU - Pronk, Anjoeka
AU - Schlünssen, Vivi
AU - Stokholm, Zara A
AU - Kolstad, Henrik A
AU - van Veldhoven, Karin
AU - Basinas, Ioannis
AU - van Tongeren, Martie
AU - Peters, Susan
AU - Kreissl, Helen
N1 - Funding Information:
The UK contribution to this work was supported by funding from the PROTECT COVID-19 National Core Study on transmission and environment, managed by the UK Health and Safety Executive on behalf of HM Government.
Funding Information:
KOH received funding from a VENI grant from The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), project number 451-16-031.
Funding Information:
the scope of OMEGA-NET, supported by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology), project CA16216: Network on the Coordination and Harmonisation of European Occupational Cohorts.
Funding Information:
This study is partly funded by EPHOR (the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 874703).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, Nordic Association of Occupational Safety and Health. All rights reserved.
PY - 2022/1/1
Y1 - 2022/1/1
N2 - Objective This study aimed to construct a job exposure matrix (JEM) for risk of becoming infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus in an occupational setting. Methods Experts in occupational epidemiology from three European countries (Denmark, The Netherlands and the United Kingdom) defined the relevant exposure and workplace characteristics with regard to possible exposure to the SARS-CoV-2 virus. In an iterative process, experts rated the different dimensions of the COVID-19-JEM for each job title within the International Standard Classification of Occupations system 2008 (ISCO-08). Agreement scores, weighted kappas, and variances were estimated. Results The COVID-19-JEM contains four determinants of transmission risk [number of people, nature of contacts, contaminated workspaces and location (indoors or outdoors)], two mitigation measures (social distancing and face covering), and two factors for precarious work (income insecurity and proportion of migrants). Agreement scores ranged from 0.27 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.25-0.29] for 'migrants' to 0.76 (95% CI 0.74-0.78) for 'nature of contacts'. Weighted kappas indicated moderate-to-good agreement for all dimensions [ranging from 0.60 (95% CI 0.60-0.60) for 'face covering' to 0.80 (95% CI 0.80-0.80) for 'contaminated workspaces'], except for 'migrants' (0.14 (95% CI -0.07-0.36). As country differences remained after several consensus exercises, the COVID-19-JEM also has a country-axis. Conclusions The COVID-19-JEM assesses the risk at population level using eight dimensions related to SARS-COV-2 infections at work and will improve our ability to investigate work-related risk factors in epidemiological studies. The dimensions of the COVID-19-JEM could also be valuable for other future communicable diseases in the workplace.
AB - Objective This study aimed to construct a job exposure matrix (JEM) for risk of becoming infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus in an occupational setting. Methods Experts in occupational epidemiology from three European countries (Denmark, The Netherlands and the United Kingdom) defined the relevant exposure and workplace characteristics with regard to possible exposure to the SARS-CoV-2 virus. In an iterative process, experts rated the different dimensions of the COVID-19-JEM for each job title within the International Standard Classification of Occupations system 2008 (ISCO-08). Agreement scores, weighted kappas, and variances were estimated. Results The COVID-19-JEM contains four determinants of transmission risk [number of people, nature of contacts, contaminated workspaces and location (indoors or outdoors)], two mitigation measures (social distancing and face covering), and two factors for precarious work (income insecurity and proportion of migrants). Agreement scores ranged from 0.27 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.25-0.29] for 'migrants' to 0.76 (95% CI 0.74-0.78) for 'nature of contacts'. Weighted kappas indicated moderate-to-good agreement for all dimensions [ranging from 0.60 (95% CI 0.60-0.60) for 'face covering' to 0.80 (95% CI 0.80-0.80) for 'contaminated workspaces'], except for 'migrants' (0.14 (95% CI -0.07-0.36). As country differences remained after several consensus exercises, the COVID-19-JEM also has a country-axis. Conclusions The COVID-19-JEM assesses the risk at population level using eight dimensions related to SARS-COV-2 infections at work and will improve our ability to investigate work-related risk factors in epidemiological studies. The dimensions of the COVID-19-JEM could also be valuable for other future communicable diseases in the workplace.
U2 - 10.5271/sjweh.3998
DO - 10.5271/sjweh.3998
M3 - Article
C2 - 34788471
VL - 48
SP - 61
EP - 70
JO - Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment and Health
JF - Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment and Health
SN - 0355-3140
IS - 1
ER -
