18 Socio-Demographic Associations of COVID Antibody in Multi-Ethnic Healthcare Workers

Abstract

Introduction Healthcare workers are particularly susceptible to developingCOVID-19 owing to close and frequent contact with COVID-19patients. This study aimed to describe prevalence of SARS-COV-2antibodies amongst healthcare workers within a hospital trust and examine factors associated with increased prevalence of thisantibody. Methods Data was obtained over a 4-week period in 2020 from a cross-sectional prospective survey of healthcare workers serving amulti-ethnic inner-city population who had IgG SARS-COV-2antibody. Multiple, overlapping sources of notification wereimplemented to promote the availability of the test. Anonymisedsocio-demographic data about staff members were crossreferenced with data of the antibody tests. Results Of 7,013,6,212 (89%) staff undertook the antibody test during thestudy period. The overall detection rate of IgG SARS COV-2antibody was 26%(1584/6212). Univariate analyses reveal thatthere were no differences in the prevalence rates in terms of gender or age. Compared to white staff members (18%),prevalence of the antibody was significantly greater in Black(38%)and Asian(27%) staff members. The combined prevalence for allBAME staff members was 32%. The prevalence rates of staff ingeneral wards (43%) were significantly higher other areas of thetrust. For staff in emergency medicine, intensive care and anaesthetics, prevalence was 23%, whereas for other clinicalteams it was 21%. In terms of professional groups, prevalencerates were highest amongst nursing and allied clinical services(28%), followed by doctors (23%), whereas, it was lower for non-clinical staff(19%). Discussion This large multi-ethnic hospital-based study has described theprevalence of recent exposure to SARS-COV-2 infection amongsthealthcare workers and determined socio-demographicassociations of this prevalence including ethnicity, professionalhealthcare groups, and geographical areas of work in healthcaresettings. The study provides information that may be useful infuture COVID studies examining the role of antibody testing bothin general populations as well as in healthcare settings.