Background: Occupational infection rates for SARS-CoV-2 among health professionals in Spain are high in comparison to other countries. The objective of the study was to describe and analyze the risk factors associated with this transmission.
Methods: Cross-sectional study with non-probabilistic snowball sampling of health professionals (medicine, nursing, physiotherapy, auxiliary care) of different levels of care (primary care, hospital, nursing homes, etc.), who were in contact or not with patients with COVID-19, in June 2020 in Spain. We prepared an electronic survey of 81 questions structured in four blocks: sociodemographic variables, knowledge about COVID-19, availability and use of personal protective equipment (PPE), and environmental protection measures and training received.
Results: 855 health workers responded, 81.5% women and the mean age was 44 years (28-68). 93.4% knew the main symptoms but 40.4% did not identify the route of transmission via droplets and contact. 67.5% of them cared for COVID-19 patients without adequate PPE and 29.1% wore the same PPE continuously for more than 4 hours. 25.6% of workers had not received any type of training in donning and removing the PPE and 61.2% of them were unable to previously practice the process. The frequency of coronavirus infection among health professionals was 19.4%, which is higher in those professionals who had not received specific training (25.8 vs 17.2%, p=0.009).
Conclusion: Training, drafting protocols and screening programs, supervising the situations of greatest risk, ensuring the availability of material and increasing the commitment of health institutions to support health personnel should be implemented as contagion prevention strategies.