Infektionsrisiko von Frauen für eine COVID-19-Erkrankung während der Pandemie

Objective: The proportion of women is increased in occupational SARS-CoV-2 infections and is as high as 80 %. Therefore, we investigated whether women have a higher risk of infection than men or whether they carry out more risky tasks.

Methods: Existing data from two studies on infection dynamics among staff of two different hospitals were combined, irrespective of occupation, and analysed for possible differences between men and women in terms of infection risk. Primary data were available for this secondary data analysis. Odds ratios with 95 % confidence intervals and chi-square tests (95 %-CI) were calculated for the correlation analysis.

Results: Data from 1785 employees were available for the evaluation. Women accounted for 74.6 % of the study participants. The proportion of women among the infected participants was 81.7 % (138 out of 169). 7.4 % of men and 10.1 % of women were infected. The infection rate in exposed men was slightly lower than in exposed women (9.8 % and 13.0 %, odds ratios 3.2 [95 %-CI 1.2–8.5] and 3.6 [95 %-CI 2.2–6.0]).For unexposed workers, infection rates barely differed between men and women (3.3 % and 4.0 %). There were only small differences between men and women (16.2 % and 11.2 % respectively) in infection rates after private contact.

Conclusions: We found no evidence of an increased risk of infection in women compared to men with a similar level of exposure in the hospital.