| Title: |
COVID-19 among health care workers in Brazil: prevalence and disparities based on respondent-driven sampling |
| Authors: |
Ligia Kerr; Marto Leal; Rosa Lívia Freitas Almeida; Ana Zaira da Silva; Cristiane Cunha Frota; Luana Nepomuceno Gondim Costa Lima; Luciane Nascimento Cruz; Maria de Fátima Militão de Albuquerque; Mirian Cohen; Ricardo Arraes de Alencar Ximenes; Wayner Vieira de Souza; Maria Amélia de Sousa Mascena Veras; José Luis Gomes; Roberto da Justa Pires Neto; Marli Teresinha Gimeniz Galvão; Patrícia Neyva da Costa Pinheiro; Ulisses Ramos Montarroyos; Cresio Romeu Pereira; Demócrito de Barros Miranda-Filho; Paulo Roberto Borges de Souza Junior; Thália Velho Barreto de Araújo; Pedro Miguel dos Santos Neto; Cynthia Braga; Celina Maia Turchi Martelli; Carl Kendall |
| Source: |
Revista de Saúde Pública, Vol 59 (2026) |
| Publisher Information: |
Universidade de São Paulo |
| Publication Year: |
2026 |
| Collection: |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
| Subject Terms: |
Health Workers; COVID-19; Brazil; Prevalence; Disparities; Respondent-Driven Sampling; Public aspects of medicine; RA1-1270 |
| Description: |
OBJECTIVE To determine the prevalence and disparities of COVID-19 among health care workers in Brazil. METHODS A survey was conducted among health care workers in five Brazilian cities. Disparities in the prevalence of COVID-19 were analyzed by professional category and region (North/Northeast versus South/Southeast). RESULTS The sample was composed of 2,499 health care workers: 601 (24.1%) nursing technicians, 1,095 (43.8%) registered nurses, and 803 (32.1%) physicians. Recruitment and data collection were conducted online from May 21, 2020, to February 10, 2021, using respondent-driven sampling. The overall COVID-19 prevalence was 48.1% (95%CI: 43.4–52.9). The highest COVID-19 prevalence was identified among nursing technicians (52.8%; 95%CI: 44.4–61.0). Nursing technicians reported undergoing fewer PCR and COVID-19 tests compared to physicians. Nursing technicians and registered nurses in the North/Northeast regions who reported COVID-19 symptoms spent much of the first year of the pandemic without access to confirmatory testing. Furthermore, the risk of laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 was significantly lower for all occupational categories in the North and Northeast regions. CONCLUSIONS COVID-19 rates among health care workers were exceptionally high and non-uniformly distributed. This mirrors the vast socioeconomic, cultural, and political differences and the difficulty in coordinating pandemic control actions in Brazil. |
| Document Type: |
article in journal/newspaper |
| Language: |
English; Spanish; Castilian; Portuguese |
| Relation: |
http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0034-89102025000100250&lng=en&tlng=en; http://www.scielo.br/pdf/rsp/v59/1518-8787-rsp-59-e51.pdf; https://doaj.org/toc/1518-8787; https://doaj.org/article/286e8b8969264663a618635dc5b9bb88 |
| DOI: |
10.11606/s1518-8787.2025059006959 |
| Availability: |
https://doi.org/10.11606/s1518-8787.2025059006959; https://doaj.org/article/286e8b8969264663a618635dc5b9bb88 |
| Accession Number: |
edsbas.986BF375 |
| Database: |
BASE |