TITLE:
Proposed Protocol for Risk Assessment and Stratification
AUTHORS:
Teófila Vicente-Herrero, Victoria Ramírez Iñiguez de la Torre, Teresa del Campo Balsa, Luis Reinoso Barbero, Alejandro Fernández Montero, Juan Carlos Rueda Garrido
KEYWORDS:
COVID-19, Vulnerability, Occupational Health, Occupational Medicine
JOURNAL NAME:
Occupational Diseases and Environmental Medicine,
Vol.8 No.3,
August
5,
2020
ABSTRACT: Introduction: COVID-19 disease is a highly contagious viral infection caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. There is growing interest in Public Health and Occupational Health in identifying the COVID-19 prognostic factors, needed to stratified patients by risk being necessary to consider occupational variables as well as individual and clinical factors of the workers. Objective: The aim of this study was to perform a tool to identify the more vulnerable workers for COVID-19 that will be useful to value their work limitations. Methods: A review of medical literature about the vulnerability for COVID-19 is taken into account occupational risks and occupational preventive measures. Results: It is proposed an index of vulnerability criteria for COVID-19 in workers based on quantifying individual characteristics, pre-existing medical conditions and its control, high risk of occupational exposure, and prevention and protection strategies in the workplace. The final result is stratified into three degrees of vulnerability that will serve to propose the most appropriate preventive measures. Conclusion: This proposal protocol assesses about the vulnerability for COVID-19 infection in workers to help decide the preventive management at workplace in this pandemic situation.