O-061 Investigating Work-Related Factors and Infection Risk During the Covid Pandemic: Pooled Analysis of Data From the Uk Longitudinal Linkage Collaboration (Uk-Llc)

Introduction We investigated how work-related factors such as key worker status, furlough, and working from home were associated with infection risk during the COVID-19 pandemic. We also explored how these relationships differed given the definition of an infection i.e. self-reported infection vs diagnostic test. Methods The UK LLC has collated data from 15 UK national cohort studies initiated since the 1960s and linked to NHS testing data. Each cohort surveyed participants at multiple stages during the pandemic, asking questions relating to several characteristics including self-reported infection status and occupational factors. We pooled risk ratios across cohort specific mixed effects Poisson regression models to investigate the association between work-related characteristics and infection due to both the self-reported infection status and the linked diagnostic test-positive infection status. Results Of the 15 studies, approximately 72,290 individuals responded 136,453 times to COVID surveys between March 2020 and March 2021. During which 10.8% (20% individuals) self-reported an infection whereas 1.9% (4.1% individuals) were linked to a positive test result. Pooled risk ratios indicated for self-reported infection that ‘key workers’ and ‘not-home working’ were at 23% and 7% increased risk whereas furlough, and ‘part-time workers’ both decreased risk by 7%. Linked positive infection was consistently associated with a greater magnitude in the effect with a 70% (compared to 23%) increased risk for keyworkers. Discussion and conclusion These results give a better understanding of the influence of work-related characteristics had on infection risk. Careful consideration of the infection definition also appears to be an important consideration when interpreting the influence of these characteristics.