Highlights
- •Over 40% of surveyed US health care personnel worked with self-reported ILI.
- •By occupation, pharmacists and physicians were most likely to work with ILI.
- •By work setting, hospital-based personnel were the most likely to work with ILI.
- •Interventions should target misconceptions on working while ill and paid sick leave.
Background
Health care personnel (HCP) working while experiencing influenza-like illness (ILI)
contribute to influenza transmission in health care settings. Studies focused on certain
HCP occupations or work settings have demonstrated that some HCP often continue to
work while ill.
Methods
Using a national nonprobability Internet panel survey of 1,914 HCP during the 2014-2015
influenza season, we calculated the frequency of working with self-reported ILI (ie,
fever and cough or sore throat) and examined reasons for working with ILI by occupation
and work setting.
Results
Overall, 414 (21.6%) HCP reported ILI, and 183 (41.4%) reported working with ILI (median,
3 days; range, 0-30 days). Pharmacists (67.2%) and physicians (63.2%) had the highest
frequency of working with ILI. By work setting, hospital-based HCP had the highest
frequency of working with ILI (49.3%). The most common reasons for working while ill
included still being able to perform job duties and not feeling bad enough to miss
work. Among HCP at long-term care facilities, the most common reason was inability
to afford lost pay.
Conclusions
More than 40% of HCP with ILI work while ill. To reduce HCP-associated influenza transmission,
potential interventions could target HCP misconceptions about working while ill and
paid sick leave policies.
Key Words
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: May 16, 2017
Footnotes
SC, CLB, SMG, ASL, APC, and MAdP are employees of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The findings and conclusions are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Conflicts of interest: None to report.
Identification
Copyright
Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc.
