Risk of COVID-19 infection and work place exposure of front-line mass media professionals

  1. Sarabon Tahura
  2. Bilkis Banu
  3. Nasrin Akter
  4. Sarder Mahmud Hossain
  5. Rashidul Alam Mahumud
  6. Md Rishad Ahmed

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Abstract

Introduction

Mass media plays a crucial role in creating awareness and knowledge sharing in this Corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. However, the risk of exposure and extent of COVID-19 infection among media professional are less elucidated yet. Therefore, this study was intended to investigate the workplace-related risk of COVID-19 exposure and the association between exposure to COVID-19 and participant’s characteristics, including various forms of respiratory protection for mass-media professionals.

Methods

This closed web-based cross-sectional survey was conducted among 199 mass-media professionals in Bangladesh by snowball sampling approach. A multivariate logistic regression model was used for the analytical exploration. Adjusted and Unadjusted Odds Ratio (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) were calculated for the specified exposures. Chi-square test was used to observe the association. Ethical issues were maintained according to the guidance of the declaration of the Helsinki.

Results

Of all, 39.2% of mass-media professionals were tested positive for COVID-19, whereas 6% of symptomatic or suspected participants did not do the test. Mass media professionals who worked in electronic media reported more COVID-19 infection (adjusted odds ratio, AOR= 6.25; 95% Confidence interval: Lower limit 1.43, upper limit 27.43; P =0.02). However, no significant relationship was found between the type of job role and COVID-19 infection. Furthermore, infected colleagues (OR/P=1.92/0.04) were identified as significant contact of acquiring infection. However, the study result showed that reused/new medical mask, homemade/cloth-made mask (vs. use of respirator mask) was not significantly (p=0.82) associated with mass media professional’s infection.

Conclusions

Professionals working in electronic media were at higher risk of being infected by COVID-19 and mostly acquired from infected colleagues. Using a respirator mask was not associated with a lower risk of test positive infection in mass media professionals. This study will aid the policy maker and public health authorities during the COVID-19 pandemic to make proper implementation strategies.

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    SciScore for 10.1101/2021.05.06.21256773: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    EthicsIACUC: Ethical Considerations: The study complied with the Declaration of Helsinki and was approved by the Ethical Review Committee, Department of Public Health, Northern University Bangladesh, Dhaka, Bangladesh (memo no. NUB/DPH/EC/2020/05).
    Consent: Informed consent was sought from the respondents at the beginning point of the survey.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    Software and Algorithms
    SentencesResources
    Data analysis: Data were entered, checked for quality, and analyzed utilizing the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software, v.22.
    Statistical Package for the Social Sciences
    suggested: (SPSS, RRID:SCR_002865)
    SPSS
    suggested: (SPSS, RRID:SCR_002865)

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: An explicit section about the limitations of the techniques employed in this study was not found. We encourage authors to address study limitations.

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.

    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    Results from scite Reference Check: We found no unreliable references.

    About SciScore

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  2. Version published to 10.1101/2021.05.06.21256773v1 on medRxiv