Determinants of workplace safety towards SARS-Cov-2 and combating COVID-19 among non-healthcare workers in Hong Kong, Nanjing and Wuhan, China

Abstract

There has been no validated tool to assess workplace infection control towards SARS-Cov-2 in non-healthcare industries. In this first year survey during 07/2020–04/2021, 6684 workers were recruited from varied non-healthcare settings of Hong Kong, Nanjing and Wuhan of China and responded standard questionnaires containing information of prevention measures and policies implemented by companies and personal preventive behaviour towards infection control. All participants were randomly stratified into two sub-samples as training and validation sample. Workplace safety index towards SARS-Cov-2 (WSI-SC2) was developed and validated using exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). We identified 14 manifest variables in WSI-SC2, with three sub-indices named “Workplace infection control measures and prevention”, “Company occupational safety and health management and commitment” and “Worker’s personal preventive behavior and awareness towards infectious control”. WSI-SC2 obtained a good internal consistency reliability (Cronbach's alpha coefficients ranged: 0.76–0.91), good composite reliability (composite reliability ranged: 0.70–0.95) and satisfactory fit of the model (GFI = 0.95; SRMR = 0.05; RMSEA = 0.07). We further performed stratified analysis according to cities, and the index remained stable. Workers with higher scores of WSI-SC2 were more likely to uptake COVID-19 test. This multi-city large study developed a novel and validated tool that could horizontally measure the workplace safety towards SARS-Cov-2 in non-healthcare workers.