Occupational COVID-19 admission risks compared in Sweden and Denmark under different lockdowns

A register-based follow-up study in the Scandinavian Journal of Public Health compared first-time COVID-19-related hospital admissions among employees aged 20–69 years in Skåne, Sweden, and Denmark during 2020–2021. The settings used relatively relaxed and rigorous lockdowns, respectively. Researchers analysed 30 selected occupations separately at each site using a uniform protocol, estimating adjusted incidence rate ratios (IRRs) against a reference population consisting mainly of office workers.

In Skåne, 2,443 admissions occurred among 607,179 employees, an incidence of 2.02 per 1,000 person-years. Denmark recorded 4,416 admissions among 2,451,542 employees, or 1.01 per 1,000 person-years. Healthcare workers had elevated adjusted risks in both Skåne (IRR 1.38; 95% CI 1.18–1.60) and Denmark (1.56; 1.39–1.75). Transportation workers also had increased risks: 1.33 (1.08–1.78) and 1.48 (1.23–1.78), respectively. Risks in education, retail sales and broader service occupations were generally not increased.

These findings identify healthcare and transportation workers as groups with elevated admission risk in both settings. Occupational relative risks were not higher in Skåne, but this observational comparison cannot establish the causal effect of lockdown policy. The authors suggest that higher absolute infection risk in Skåne may have attenuated occupational differences in admissions. Only the abstract was available for assessment.