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Updated: Dec 10, 2025

Collecting Sleep, Circadian, Fatigue, and Performance Data in Complex Operational Environments
Published on: August 8, 2019
High body mass index and night shift work are associated with COVID-19 in health care workers
S Rizza1, L Coppeta2, S Grelli3
1Department of Systems Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Via Montpellier 1, 00133, Rome, Italy. stefano.rizza@uniroma2.it.
Objective:
To assess the magnitude of COVID-19 spread and the associated risk factors among health care workers (HCWs), we conducted an in-hospital survey in a central Italian COVID Hospital.
Methods:
Participants underwent nasopharyngeal swab and/or serum collection for SARS-CoV-2 IgG examination. We divided participants according to working status, into rotating-night shift workers (r-NSW) and day-workers.
Results:
We found 30 cases of COVID-19 infection in a total of 1180 HCWs (2.5%). Most COVID-19-positive hospital employees were r-NSWs with significantly higher BMI than that of individuals who tested negative. After adjustment for covariates, night work and BMI > 30 were associated with a markedly greater risk of COVID-19 diagnosis (OR 3.049 [95%CI 1.260-7.380] and OR 7.15 [95%CI 2.91-17.51], respectively).
Conclusions:
Our results describe a low prevalence of COVID-19 infection among HCWs at a central Italian COVID Hospital. COVID-19 infection risk appears to be associated with obesity and night shift work, thus supporting the need for careful health surveillance among frontline HCWs exposed to COVID-19.
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