TY - JOUR

T1 - Low impact of regular PCR testing on presence at work site during the COVID-19 pandemic: experiences during an open observational study in Lower Saxony 2020-21

AU - Seiler, Lisa K.

AU - Stolpe, Susanne

AU - Stanislawski, Nils

AU - Stahl, Frank

AU - Witt, Martin

AU - Jonczyk, Rebecca

AU - Heiden, Stefanie

AU - Blume, Holger

AU - Kowall, Bernd

AU - Blume, Cornelia

N1 - Funding Information: The project group would like to thank Dr. Corinna Hauß (MVZ Labor Limbach Hannover GbR) and Dipl.-Ing. Jan Vöckler for their support and advice. We further thank several PhD students at the Institutes of Technical Chemistry and Microelectronic Systems (Leibniz University Hannover, Hanover, Germany) for intense work on both PCR- and antibody testing as well as technical and organizational support in this project. Furthermore, we thank the medical and dental students from the Hannover Medical School (MHH) and from the university in Goettingen for their support registering subjects and taking swabs. We thank Nils Hoppe and his team for their support of the study’s ethical vote and procedures with regard to data protection (Centre of Ethics and Law in the Life Sciences, Leibniz University Hannover, Hanover, Germany). Funding Information: Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL. The study was partially financed by state funds from the Ministry of Economics of Lower Saxony. The Ministry of Economics had no role in the design and conduct of the project or related studies; data collection, management, analysis, or interpretation; or writing of this article.

PY - 2023/2/3

Y1 - 2023/2/3

N2 - BackgroundSince social distancing during the COVID-19-pandemic had a profound impact on professional life, this study investigated the effect of PCR testing on on-site work.MethodsPCR screening, antibody testing, and questionnaires offered to 4,890 working adults in Lower Saxony were accompanied by data collection on demographics, family status, comorbidities, social situation, health-related behavior, and the number of work-related contacts. Relative risks (RR) with 95 % confidence intervals were estimated for the associations between regular PCR testing and other work and health-related variables, respectively, and working on-site. Analyses were stratified by the suitability of work tasks for mobile office.ResultsBetween April 2020 and February 2021, 1,643 employees underwent PCR testing. Whether mobile working was possible strongly influenced the work behavior. Persons whose work was suitable for mobile office (mobile workers) had a lower probability of working on-site than persons whose work was not suitable for mobile office (RR = 0.09 (95 % CI: 0.07 – 0.12)). In mobile workers, regular PCR-testing was slightly associated with working on-site (RR = 1.19 (0.66; 2.14)). In those whose working place was unsuitable for mobile office, the corresponding RR was 0.94 (0.80; 1.09). Compared to persons without chronic diseases, chronically ill persons worked less often on-site if their workplace was suitable for mobile office (RR = 0.73 (0.40; 1.33)), but even more often if their workplace was not suitable for mobile office (RR = 1.17 (1.04; 1.33)).ConclusionIf work was suitable for mobile office, regular PCR-testing did not have a strong effect on presence at the work site.Trial registrationAn ethics vote of the responsible medical association (Lower Saxony, Germany) retrospectively approved the evaluation of the collected subject data in a pseudonymized form in the context of medical studies (No. Bo/30/2020; Bo/31/2020; Bo/32/2020).

AB - BackgroundSince social distancing during the COVID-19-pandemic had a profound impact on professional life, this study investigated the effect of PCR testing on on-site work.MethodsPCR screening, antibody testing, and questionnaires offered to 4,890 working adults in Lower Saxony were accompanied by data collection on demographics, family status, comorbidities, social situation, health-related behavior, and the number of work-related contacts. Relative risks (RR) with 95 % confidence intervals were estimated for the associations between regular PCR testing and other work and health-related variables, respectively, and working on-site. Analyses were stratified by the suitability of work tasks for mobile office.ResultsBetween April 2020 and February 2021, 1,643 employees underwent PCR testing. Whether mobile working was possible strongly influenced the work behavior. Persons whose work was suitable for mobile office (mobile workers) had a lower probability of working on-site than persons whose work was not suitable for mobile office (RR = 0.09 (95 % CI: 0.07 – 0.12)). In mobile workers, regular PCR-testing was slightly associated with working on-site (RR = 1.19 (0.66; 2.14)). In those whose working place was unsuitable for mobile office, the corresponding RR was 0.94 (0.80; 1.09). Compared to persons without chronic diseases, chronically ill persons worked less often on-site if their workplace was suitable for mobile office (RR = 0.73 (0.40; 1.33)), but even more often if their workplace was not suitable for mobile office (RR = 1.17 (1.04; 1.33)).ConclusionIf work was suitable for mobile office, regular PCR-testing did not have a strong effect on presence at the work site.Trial registrationAn ethics vote of the responsible medical association (Lower Saxony, Germany) retrospectively approved the evaluation of the collected subject data in a pseudonymized form in the context of medical studies (No. Bo/30/2020; Bo/31/2020; Bo/32/2020).

KW - COVID-19

KW - Home Office

KW - PCR test

KW - Workplace safety

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85147423202&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1186/s12889-023-15036-9

DO - 10.1186/s12889-023-15036-9

M3 - Article

VL - 23

JO - BMC PUBLIC HEALTH

JF - BMC PUBLIC HEALTH

SN - 1471-2458

IS - 1

M1 - 240

ER -