Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Student Research Committee, Department of Occupational Health and Safety Engineering, School of Public Health, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran

2 Department of Occupational Health and Safety Engineering, School of Public Health, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran

Abstract

Background: The rise of COVID-19 in the 21st century has posed challenges for national and international communities. Meanwhile, people who work in high-risk jobs in terms of biological exposure, such as banks, are more likely to be exposed to coronavirus. This study aimed to investigate the risk of probability and clinical severity of COVID-19 infection among employees of one of the bank branches in Shiraz, Iran.
Methods: In this study, the risk of infection to Covid-19 among the desired bank branch employees was assessed using the Covid-age index. The related information was gathered through observation and face-to-face interviews using workplace risk assessment for exposure to SARS-COV-2 virus guidelines. Moreover, the International Labor Organization risk assessment standard was used to quantify the individuals’ risks.
Results: The average COVID-19 risk score among studied employees was 4.6, categorized as low. Moreover, the employees’ mean age and Covid-age index were 44.7±3.65 and 47.6±4.52, respectively. The severity of the clinical picture was evaluated as mild to moderate (levels 1 and 2). Moreover, the risk of disease was considered 2 for all employees, considering the work environment.
Conclusion: The results of this study showed that the Covid-age index could effectively evaluate and quantify the risk of exposure to COVID-19. Bank personnel is exposed to the biological risk of COVID-19. People with the underlying disease are at higher risk of COVID-19 consequences.

Keywords

  1. Jack SM, Munro‐Kramer ML, Williams JR, Schminkey D, Tomlinson E, Mayo-Wilson LJ, et al. Recognising and responding to intimate partner violence using telehealth: Practical guidance for nurses and midwives. J Clin Nurs. 2021; 30 (3-4): 588-602. doi: 10.1111/jocn.15554.
  2. Jernigan DB, COVID C, Team R. Update: public health response to the coronavirus disease 2019 outbreak—United States, February 24, 2020. Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2020;69(8):216-19. doi: 10.15585/mmwr.mm6908e1. PMID: 32106216; PMCID: PMC7367075.
  3. Mehrotra A, Ray K, Brockmeyer DM, Barnett ML, Bender JA. Rapidly converting to “virtual practices”: outpatient care in the era of Covid-19. NEJM Catalyst. 2020; 1(2): 1-5. doi: 1056/CAT.20.009.
  4. Organization WH. WHO Director-General’s opening remarks at the media briefing on COVID 19. 11 March 2020: Geneva, Switzerland, 2020.
  5. Chatterjee R, Bajwa S, Dwivedi D, Kanji R, Ahammed M, Shaw R. COVID-19 Risk Assessment Tool: Dual application of risk communication and risk governance. Progress in Disaster Science. 2020;7: 100109. doi: 10.1016/j.pdisas.2020.100109.
  6. Bertsimas D, Lukin G, Mingardi L, Stellato B, Wiberg H, Gonzalez-Garcia S, et al. COVID-19 mortality risk assessment: An international multi-center study. PloS one. 2020;15(12):e0243262. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0243262.
  7. Shaw R, Kim Y-k, Hua J. Governance, technology and citizen behavior in pandemic: Lessons from COVID-19 in East Asia. Progress in disaster science. 2020; 6:100090. doi: 10.1016/j.pdisas.2020.100090.
  8. Bohn MK, Hall A, Sepiashvili L, Jung B, Steele S, Adeli K. Pathophysiology of COVID-19: mechanisms underlying disease severity and progression. Physiol. 2020;35(5):288-301. doi: 10.1152/physiol.00019.2020.
  9. Driggin E, Madhavan MV, Bikdeli B, Chuich T, Laracy J, Biondi-Zoccai G, et al. Cardiovascular considerations for patients, health care workers, and health systems during the COVID-19 pandemic. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2020;75(18): 2352-71. doi: 10.1016/j.jacc.2020.03.031.
  10. Team E. The epidemiological characteristics of an outbreak of 2019 novel coronavirus diseases (COVID-19) China, 2020. China CDC Wkly. 2020; 2(8):113-22. PMID: 34594836; PMCID: PMC8392929.
  11. Escobedo-de la Peña J, Rascón-Pacheco RA, de Jesús Ascencio-Montiel I, González-Figueroa E, Fernández-Gárate JE, Medina-Gómez OS, et al. Hypertension, diabetes and obesity, major risk factors for death in patients with COVID-19 in Mexico. Arch Med Res. 2021;52(4):443-49. doi: 10.1016/j.arcmed.2020.12.002.
  12. Richardson S, Hirsch JS, Narasimhan M, Crawford JM, McGinn T, Davidson KW,et al. Presenting characteristics, comorbidities, and outcomes among 5700 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 in the New York City area. Jama 2020;323(20):2052-59. doi: 10.1001/jama.2020.6775. PMID: 32320003; PMCID: PMC7177629.
  13. Stikova E, Petkovski M, Sinadinovska TP, Petkovska SJ. Workplace Risk Assessment in the Case of Exposure to SARS CoV-2 Virus. Macedonian: Macedonian Occupational Safety and Health Association. 2020; 1-32.
  14. https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/ed_dialogue/lab_admin/documents/ projectdocumentation/wcms_744686.pdf.
  15. Vickers NJ. Animal communication: when i’m calling you, will you answer too?. Curr Biol. 2017; 27(14):713-15. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2017.05.064.
  16. Strain WD, Jankowski J, Davies A, English P, Friedman E, McKeownet H, et al. Development of an objective risk stratification tool to facilitate workplace assessments of healthcare workers when dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. BMJ Open. 2020; :e042225. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2020-042225.
  17. Mohammadfam I, Mahdinia M, Salimi V, koupal R, Soltanzadeh A. Assessing the risk of COVID-19 in workplace environments using rapid risk analysis. Journal Mil Med. 2020;22(6):607-15. doi: 10.30491/JMM.22.6.607.
  18. Daoust JF. Elderly people and responses to COVID-19 in 27 Countries. PloS one 2020;15(7):e0235590. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0235590.
  19. Davies NG, Klepac P, Liu Y. Age-dependent effects in the transmission and control of COVID-19 epidemics. J Nat  2020;26(8):1205-11. doi: 10.1038/s41591-020-0962-9.
  20. Javanmardi F, Keshavarzi A, Akbari A, Emami A, Pirbonyeh N. Prevalence of underlying diseases in died cases of COVID-19: A systematic review and meta-analysis. PloS one 2020;15(10):e0241265. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0241265.
  21. Ramakrishnan S, Zachariah G, Gupta K, Rao JS, Mohanan PP, Venugopal K, et al. Prevalence of hypertension among Indian adults: results from the great India blood pressure survey. Indian Heart J. 2019;71(4):309-13. doi: 10.1016/j.ihj.2019.09.012.
  22. Hafeez A, Ahmad S, Siddqui SA, Ahmad M, Mishra S. A review of COVID-19 (Coronavirus Disease-2019) diagnosis, treatments and prevention. Ejmo. 2020;4(2):116-25. doi: 10.14744/ejmo.2020.90853.
  23. Guzik TJ, Mohiddin SA, Dimarco A, Patel V , Savvatis K, Marelli-Berg FM, et al. COVID-19 and the cardiovascular system: implications for risk assessment, diagnosis, and treatment options. Cardiovasc Res. 2020;116(10):1666-87. doi: 10.1093/cvr/cvaa106.
  24. Pharris A. COVID-19 pandemic: increased transmission in the EU/EEA and the UK–eighth update. 2020.