Exploring U.S. Food System Workers’ Intentions to Work While Ill During the Early COVID-19 Pandemic: A National Survey

Details

• Personal Author:
  Agnew J ; Barnett DJ ; Ceryes CA ; Neff RA ; Wirtz AL
• Description:
  With "stay at home" orders in effect during early COVID-19, many United States (U.S.) food system workers attended in-person work to maintain national food supply chain operations. Anecdotally, many encountered barriers to staying home despite symptomatic COVID-19 illness. We conducted a national, cross-sectional, online survey between 31 July and 2 October 2020 among 2535 respondents. Using multivariable regression and free-text analyses, we investigated factors associated with workers' intentions to attend work while ill (i.e., presenteeism intentions) during the early COVID-19 pandemic. Overall, 8.8% of respondents intended to attend work with COVID-19 disease symptoms. Almost half (41.1%) reported low or very low household food security. Workers reporting a higher workplace safety climate score were half as likely to report presenteeism intentions (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 0.52, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.37, 0.75) relative to those reporting lower scores. Workers reporting low (aOR 2.06, 95% CI 1.35, 3.13) or very low (aOR 2.31, 95% CI 1.50, 3.13) household food security levels had twice the odds of reporting presenteeism intentions relative to those reporting high/marginal food security. Workplace culture and safety climate could enable employees to feel like they can take leave when sick during a pandemic, which is critical to maintaining individual and workplace health. We stress the need for strategies which address vulnerabilities and empower food workers to make health-protective decisions. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Communicable Diseases Food-Processing Industry Occupational Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Author Keywords: COVID-19 COVID-19 Disaster Preparedness Disease Control Food Insecurity Food Processing Workers Food System Health Protection Presenteeism Safety Climate Worker

  More +
• ISSN:
  1660-4601
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Maryland ; OSHA Region 3
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Volume:
  20
• Issue:
  2
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20066842
• Citation:
  Int J Environ Res Public Health 2023 Jan; 20(2):1638
• Contact Point Address:
  Caitlin A. Ceryes, Department of Health Sciences, Towson University, Towson, MD 21252
• Email:
  cceryes@towson.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2023
• Performing Organization:
  Johns Hopkins University
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20050701
• Source Full Name:
  International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
• End Date:
  20280630
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:cfd49ac388ab87253427c47d31a7c06a6782b97e22531fc629a45220c3a77f2215164e40b17bcf0bd09159da89f75f9042ff501345a0aee3b619aa651569e0e8
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/231174/cdc_231174_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 384.50 KB ]