Proposed Occupational Vulnerability Index COVID-19

Introduction: Vulnerable is someone who can be hurt or receive injury, physically or morally. The work environment appears as one of the dimensions in which social vulnerability develops and social and occupational vulnerability is defined. The literature does not include an assessment of quantified occupational vulnerability as it already exists in the case of social vulnerability. The aim of this paper is to identify and quantify the variables included in the Protocol for the Assessment of Vulnerability to COVID-19 in such a way that the result can be quantified and allows for a predictive effect on the degree of vulnerability. Methodology: The starting point is the design of a protocol proposal that includes 29 variables. Data is collected from a sample of 420 workers, quantifying the results according to each variable, the overall scores for each group of aspects assessed and, finally, the total score that estimates the degree of vulnerability according to established ranges. Results: Variables that have the highest coefficient and, therefore, the greatest weight in the probability of reaching a group of high or medium vulnerability are cardiovascular disease, cancer, and coagulation alteration. The weight of the labour aspects due to inadequate working conditions stands out. Conclusions: The results obtained with this protocol allow us to make a quantified assessment of labour vulnerability to COVID-19 by integrating individual variables of the worker, his working conditions and the preventive actions of his company against COVID-19, and can be useful as an Occupational Vulnerability Index (OVI).

Proposed Protocol for Risk Assessment and Stratification

Introduction: COVID-19 disease is a highly contagious viral infection caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. There is growing interest in Public Health and Occupational Health in identifying the COVID-19 prognostic factors, needed to stratified patients by risk being necessary to consider occupational variables as well as individual and clinical factors of the workers. Objective: The aim of this study was to perform a tool to identify the more vulnerable workers for COVID-19 that will be useful to value their work limitations. Methods: A review of medical literature about the vulnerability for COVID-19 is taken into account occupational risks and occupational preventive measures. Results: It is proposed an index of vulnerability criteria for COVID-19 in workers based on quantifying individual characteristics, pre-existing medical conditions and its control, high risk of occupational exposure, and prevention and protection strategies in the workplace. The final result is stratified into three degrees of vulnerability that will serve to propose the most appropriate preventive measures. Conclusion: This proposal protocol assesses about the vulnerability for COVID-19 infection in workers to help decide the preventive management at workplace in this pandemic situation.