Correlation between unproven therapies and delayed return-to-work for COVID-19-infected healthcare workers

Abstract

The objective of this study is to investigate factors influencing the time to return to work (RTW) of HealthCare Workers (HCW) infected with COVID-19 during the initial wave of the pandemic in a southern French university hospital. Data collection of 170 HCW (between March 16 to June 1, 2020) included demographic and professional information, clinical profiles, comorbidities, medical management, therapies and RT-PCR results. The mean time to RTW was 15.6 days. Multivariate analyses revealed that the time to RTW was shorter among laboratory and emergency workers, while it was longer for HCW aged 40 to 49 years, at higher risk of severe illness, with a delayed negative SARS-CoV-2 PCR or those treated with azithromycin and/or hydroxychloroquine. This study highlights diverse factors affecting HCW RTW post-COVID-19 infection, underscoring the importance of exercising caution in administering unproven therapies to HCW during the early stages of a novel infectious pandemic.

Keywords:

• Covid-19
• healthcare workers
• occupational infection
• occupation health
• return to work
• unproven therapies

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank all the doctors, nurses and secretaries of the occupational medicine and health department of the University Hospital of Marseille for their contributions to this study.

Authors’ contributions

Conceptualization, methodology, validation and writing M.B. and MP.L.; software, M.B. E.M. and A.L.; formal and data analysis M.B., P.R., E.M. and A.L.; investigation, R.B., M.B., P.R., F.M., F.B., C.B and A.V.; visualization, M.B.; supervision, MP.L. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Ethics approval

The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and approved by the French local Ethics Committee for the Protection of Persons (PADS 2021-34).

Informed consent statement

Informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in the study.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Data availability statement

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

The authors declare that no funds, grants, or other support were received during the preparation of this manuscript.