What is the impact of long-term COVID-19 on workers in healthcare settings? A rapid systematic review of current evidence. [Dataset]

Abstract

Long COVID (LC) has rapidly emerged as a long-term debilitating illness described by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as "devastating". Health and social care workers have a higher prevalence of self-reported LC compared to other occupational groups. For health care workers (HCW), this is likely to be due to an increased risk of exposure and their central role in caring for patients with COVID-19, especially early in the pandemic when little was known about the virus, and many months before a vaccine was introduced. This rapid systematic review focuses on the experiences of those working in healthcare settings and with LC symptoms, the impact on self-reported health, professional working lives, personal circumstances, and use of health services. HCW reported a wide range of diverse symptoms they have attributed to LC. The number and diversity of these LC symptoms have led to considerable challenges in achieving any formal diagnoses, investigations, management plans and prognosis, for those affected. This is reflected in the findings of this review.

Citation

CRUICKSHANK, M., BRAZZELLI, M., MANSON, P., TORRANCE, N. and GRANT, A. 2024. What is the impact of long-term COVID-19 on workers in healthcare settings? A rapid systematic review of current evidence. [Dataset]. PLoS one [online], 19(3), article number e0299743. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0299743

• Acceptance Date: Feb 11, 2024
• Online Publication Date: Mar 5, 2024
• Publication Date: Mar 31, 2024
• Deposit Date: Mar 15, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 15, 2024
• Publisher: Public Library of Science
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0299743
• Keywords: Myalgia; COVID-19; Fatigue; Physicians; Medical personnel; Dyspnea; Headaches; Abdominal pain
• Public URL: https://rgu-repository.worktribe.com/output/2271684
• Related Public URLs: https://rgu-repository.worktribe.com/output/1862060 (Protocol); https://rgu-repository.worktribe.com/output/2262399 (Journal article)
• Type of Data: DOCX files, XLSX and accompanying TXT file.
• Collection Date: May 18, 2023
• Collection Method: A systematic rapid review was conducted and reported in adherence to the PRISMA 2020 statement and the Enhancing Transparency in Reporting the Synthesis of Qualitative Research Statement [7, 8]. The methods for this appraisal were pre-specified in a research protocol (PROSPERO database registration number: CRD42021288181; https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/display_record.php?RecordID=288181). Our systematic review identified 28 survey studies assessing the presence and impact of LC symptoms among HCW and two qualitative studies assessing their experiences and narratives. In general, quality assessment of the studies found them to be adequately reported.