Student or educator? Sign up with your school email and get 6 months of Pro free.
Cited by 785

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 92 of the 92 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

COVID-19 in Health-Care Workers: A Living Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Prevalence, Risk Factors, Clinical Characteristics, and Outcomes

Open access
Gómez-Ochoa, Sergio Alejandro, Franco, Oscar H, Rojas, Lyda Z, Raguindin, Peter Francis, Roa-Díaz, Zayne Milena, Wyssmann, Beatrice Minder, Guevara, Sandra Lucrecia Romero, Echeverría, Luis Eduardo, Glisic, Marija, Muka, Taulant·2021·American Journal of Epidemiology

Abstract

Health-care workers (HCWs) are at the frontline of response to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), being at a higher risk of acquiring the disease and, subsequently, exposing patients and others. Searches of 8 bibliographic databases were performed to systematically review the evidence on the prevalence, risk factors, clinical characteristics, and prognosis of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection among HCWs. A total of 97 studies (all published in 2020) met the inclusion criteria. The estimated prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection from HCWs’ samples, using reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction and the presence of antibodies, was 11% (95% confidence interval (CI): 7, 15) and 7% (95% CI: 4, 11), respectively. The most frequently affected personnel were nurses (48%, 95% CI: 41, 56), whereas most of the COVID-19–positive medical personnel were working in hospital nonemergency wards during screening (43%, 95% CI: 28, 59). Anosmia, fever, and myalgia were the only symptoms associated with HCW SARS-CoV-2 positivity. Among HCWs positive for COVID-19 by reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction, 40% (95% CI: 17, 65) were asymptomatic at time of diagnosis. Finally, severe clinical complications developed in 5% (95% CI: 3, 8) of the COVID-19–positive HCWs, and 0.5% (95% CI: 0.02, 1.3) died. Health-care workers suffer a significant burden from COVID-19, with those working in hospital nonemergency wards and nurses being the most commonly infected personnel.

Overview

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1093/aje/kwaa191

Cites

92 of 92 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Verification

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Citations

Cites

Show all 92 references

Research works printed but not linked: 35

  1. Progressier, 1, 2020, The Coronavirus App
  2. Riediker, 2020, Estimation of SARS-CoV-2 emissions from non-symptomatic cases, Preprint. Posted online July 7, 2020. medRxiv
  3. Kursumovic, 2020, Deaths in healthcare workers due to COVID-19: the need for robust data and analysis, Anaesthesia, 75, 989, 10.1111/anae.15116 · doi:10.1111/anae.15116
  4. Bai, SARS-CoV-2 infection in health care workers: a retrospective analysis and a model study, Preprint. Posted online April 1, 2020. medRxiv, 10.1101/2020.03.29.20047159 · doi:10.1101/2020.03.29.20047159
  5. Liu, Epidemiological, clinical characteristics and outcome of medical staff infected with COVID-19 in Wuhan, China: a retrospective case series analysis, Preprint. Posted online March 13, 2020. medRxiv, 10.1101/2020.03.09.20033118 · doi:10.1101/2020.03.09.20033118
  6. Kluytmans, 2020, SARS-CoV-2 infection in 86 healthcare workers in two Dutch hospitals in March 2020, Preprint. Posted online March 31, 2020. medRxiv, 10.1101/2020.03.23.20041913 · DOI
  7. Paradiso, COVID-19 screening and monitoring of asymptomatic health workers with a rapid serological test, Preprint. Posted online May 8, 2020. medRxiv, 10.1101/2020.05.05.20086017 · doi:10.1101/2020.05.05.20086017
  8. Reusken, 2020, Rapid assessment of regional SARS-CoV-2 community transmission through a convenience sample of healthcare workers, the Netherlands, March 2020, Euro Surveill, 25, 10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2020.25.12.2000334 · doi:10.2807/1560-7917.es.2020.25.12.2000334
  9. Solodky, 2020, Lower detection rates of SARS-COV2 antibodies in cancer patients vs healthcare workers after symptomatic COVID-19, Ann Oncol, 31, 1087, 10.1016/j.annonc.2020.04.475 · doi:10.1016/j.annonc.2020.04.475
  10. Takita, Preliminary results of seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 at community clinics in Tokyo, Preprint. Posted online May 5, 2020. medRxiv, 10.1101/2020.04.29.20085449 · doi:10.1101/2020.04.29.20085449
  11. Wang, 2020, Clinical characteristics of 80 hospitalized frontline medical workers infected with COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, J Hosp Infect, 105, 399, 10.1016/j.jhin.2020.04.019 · doi:10.1016/j.jhin.2020.04.019
  12. Khalil, 2020, COVID-19 screening of health-care workers in a London maternity hospital, Lancet Infect Dis, S1473-3099, 30403
  13. Contejean, Comparing dynamics and determinants of SARS-CoV-2 transmissions among health care workers of adult and pediatric settings in Central Paris, Clin Infect Dis, 10.1101/2020.05.19.20106427 · doi:10.1101/2020.05.19.20106427
  14. Sikora, Serological prevalence of antibodies to SARS CoV-2 amongst cancer centre staff, Preprint. Posted online May 20, 2020. medRxiv, 10.1101/2020.05.16.20099408 · doi:10.1101/2020.05.16.20099408
  15. Yombi, 2020, Symptom-based screening for COVID-19 in health care workers: the importance of fever, J Hosp Infect, 105, 428, 10.1016/j.jhin.2020.05.028 · doi:10.1016/j.jhin.2020.05.028
  16. Antonio-Villa, Health-care workers with COVID-19 living in Mexico City: clinical characterization and related outcomes, Clin Infect Dis, 10.1101/2020.07.02.20145169 · doi:10.1101/2020.07.02.20145169
  17. Fernández-Rivas, Seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 IgG specific antibodies among healthcare workers in the northern metropolitan area of Barcelona, Spain, after the first pandemic wave, Preprint. Posted online June 26, 2020.. medRxiv, 10.1101/2020.06.24.20135673 · doi:10.1101/2020.06.24.20135673
  18. Galan, SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence among all workers IN a teaching hospital in Spain: unmasking the risk, Preprint. Posted online May 29, 2020. medRxiv, 10.1101/2020.05.29.20116731 · doi:10.1101/2020.05.29.20116731
  19. Albalate, 2020, High prevalence of asymptomatic COVID-19 in hemodialysis: daily learning during first month of COVID-19 pandemic, Nefrologia, 40, 279, 10.1016/j.nefro.2020.04.005 · doi:10.1016/j.nefro.2020.04.005
  20. Bhattacharya, Pre exposure hydroxychloroquine use is associated with reduced COVID19 risk in healthcare workers - a retrospective cohort, Preprint. Posted online October 1, 2020. medRxiv, 10.1101/2020.06.09.20116806 · doi:10.1101/2020.06.09.20116806
  21. Kammon, Seroprevalence of antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 among public community and health-care workers in Alzintan City of Libya, Preprint. Posted online May 26, 2020. medRxiv, 10.1101/2020.05.25.20109470 · doi:10.1101/2020.05.25.20109470
  22. Ma, 2020, Epidemiological, clinical, and immunological features of a cluster of COVID-19 contracted hemodialysis patients, Kidney Int Rep, 5, 1333, 10.1016/j.ekir.2020.06.003 · doi:10.1016/j.ekir.2020.06.003
  23. Mani, Prevalence of COVID-19 infection and outcomes among symptomatic healthcare Workers in Seattle, Washington, Clin Infect Dis
  24. Jones, 2020, Effective control of SARS-CoV-2 transmission between healthcare workers during a period of diminished community prevalence of COVID-19, Elife, 9, 10.7554/eLife.59391 · doi:10.7554/elife.59391
  25. Nakamura, Seroprevalence of antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 in healthcare workers in non-epidemic region: a hospital report in Iwate prefecture, Japan, Preprint. Posted online June 19, 2020. medRxiv, 10.1101/2020.06.15.20132316 · doi:10.1101/2020.06.15.20132316
  26. Parcell, Drive-through testing for SARS-CoV-2 in symptomatic health and social care workers and household members: an observational cohort study in Tayside, Scotland, Preprint. Posted online May 11, 2020. medRxiv, 10.1101/2020.05.08.20078386 · doi:10.1101/2020.05.08.20078386
  27. Shields, SARS-CoV-2 seroconversion in health care workers, Preprint. Posted online May 19, 2020. medRxiv, 10.1101/2020.05.18.20105197 · doi:10.1101/2020.05.18.20105197
  28. Bird, 2020, High SARS-CoV-2 infection rates in respiratory staff nurses and correlation of COVID-19 symptom patterns with PCR positivity and relative viral loads, J Infect, 81, 452, 10.1016/j.jinf.2020.06.035 · doi:10.1016/j.jinf.2020.06.035
  29. Xiong, The prevalence of antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 in asymptomatic healthcare workers with intensive exposure to COVID-19, Preprint. Posted online June 2, 2020. medRxiv, 10.1101/2020.05.28.20110767 · doi:10.1101/2020.05.28.20110767
  30. Jary, 2020, Clinical presentation of Covid-19 in health care workers from a French University hospital, J Infect, 81, e61, 10.1016/j.jinf.2020.06.048 · doi:10.1016/j.jinf.2020.06.048
  31. Mandić-Rajčević, Contact tracing and isolation of asymptomatic spreaders to successfully control the COVID-19 epidemic among healthcare workers, Preprint. Posted online June 28, 2020. medRxiv, 10.1101/2020.06.26.20138545 · DOI
  32. Caseiro, Positivity of SARS-CoV-2, by RT-PCR among workers of a public hospital in the city of Santos, SP, Brazil 2020, Preprint. Posted online July 2, 2020. medRxiv, 10.1101/2020.06.30.20143529 · doi:10.1101/2020.06.30.20143529
  33. Schwartz, COVID-19 infections among healthcare workers and transmission within households, medRxiv, 10.1101/2020.06.12.20129619 · doi:10.1101/2020.06.12.20129619
  34. Wu, Transmission of 2019-nCoV to health-Care workers in the early epidemic, Lancet, 10.2139/ssrn.3542155 · doi:10.2139/ssrn.3542155
  35. Eurosurveillance editorial team, 2020, Updated rapid risk assessment from ECDC on coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic: increased transmission in the EU/EEA and the UK, Euro Surveill, 25, 10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2020.25.12.2003261 · doi:10.2807/1560-7917.es.2020.25.12.2003261

Cited by

See all 785

Metadata

Authors
Gómez-Ochoa, S. A., Franco, O. H., Rojas, L. Z., Raguindin, P. F., Roa-Díaz, Z. M., Wyssmann, B. M., Guevara, S. L. R., Echeverría, L. E., Glisic, M., & Muka, T.
Venue
American Journal of Epidemiology
Published
2020-09-01
Volume
190
Issue
1
Pages
161-175
ISSN
  • 0002-9262 (ISSN-L)
  • 1476-6256
OpenAlex
W3082291084
Cited by
785
References
92
FWCI
8.45
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
bronze

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review

How to cite

Cite CoChat for the checks on this page, and the paper for its own findings.

This page
CoChat. (2026). Citation check: COVID-19 in Health-Care Workers: A Living Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Prevalence, Risk Factors, Clinical Characteristics, and Outcomes. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1093/aje/kwaa191
The paper
Gómez-Ochoa, S. A., Franco, O. H., Rojas, L. Z., Raguindin, P. F., Roa-Díaz, Z. M., Wyssmann, B. M., Guevara, S. L. R., Echeverría, L. E., Glisic, M., & Muka, T. (2021). COVID-19 in Health-Care Workers: A Living Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Prevalence, Risk Factors, Clinical Characteristics, and Outcomes. American Journal of Epidemiology. https://doi.org/10.1093/aje/kwaa191

Data sources

Bibliographic data: Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, Crossref.

Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).

Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.