A Physician's Guide for Workers' Return to Work During COVID-19 Pandemic.

Area of Science:

• Occupational Health
• Epidemiology
• Public Health

Background:

• COVID-19 poses severe risks, particularly for individuals with pre-existing health conditions.
• Workers globally are disproportionately affected due to common occupational and health factors.
• Return-to-work policies require careful consideration of individual risk profiles.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify health risk factors and medical conditions linked to severe COVID-19.
• To develop a framework for assessing occupation-specific COVID-19 risk.
• To propose a decision tool for managing worker risk during return-to-work scenarios.

Main Methods:

• Systematic review of medical literature on COVID-19 morbidity and mortality risk factors.
• Analysis of standardized community COVID-19 transmission measures.
• Evaluation of occupation-specific risk data.

Main Results:

• Worker COVID-19 risk is determined by a combination of individual, workplace, and community factors.
• Matrices were developed to quantify individual worker risk based on these three pillars.
• Relative risk of acquiring and experiencing severe COVID-19 varies significantly among different worker groups.

Conclusions:

• A practical decision-making tool can aid physicians in evaluating worker COVID-19 risk.
• This tool supports the implementation of tailored protective policies for at-risk workers.
• Managing individual worker risk is crucial for safe and effective return-to-work strategies.