Occupational Characteristics and Management Measures of Sporadic COVID-19 Outbreaks From June 2020 to January 2021 in China: The Importance of Tracking Down “Patient Zero”

There are occupational disparities in the risk of contracting COVID-19. Occupational characteristics and work addresses play key roles in tracking down “patient zero.” The present descriptive analysis for occupational characteristics and management measures of sporadic COVID-19 outbreaks from June to December 2020 in China offers important new information to the international community at this stage of the pandemic. These data suggest that Chinese measures including tracking down “patient zero,” launching mass COVID-19 testing in the SARS-CoV-2-positive areas, designating a new high- or medium-risk area, locking down the corresponding community or neighborhood in response to new COVID-19 cases, and basing individual methods of protection on science are effective in reducing the transmission of the highly contagious SARS-CoV-2 across China.

Occupational disparities in survival in Korean women with cancer: a nationwide registry linkage study

ObjectivesWe sought to examine occupational disparities in survival among Korean women diagnosed with cancer.DesignPopulation-based, registry-linkage study.SettingSouth Korea.ParticipantsOur study population comprised female workers registered in the Korean national employment insurance programme during 1995–2000 and diagnosed with cancer between 1995 and 2008. A total of 61 110 women with cancer diagnoses was included in analysis. The occupation was categorised into four groups: (1) managers, professionals and technical workers, (2) clerks, (3) service/sales workers and (4) blue-collar workers.Primary and secondary outcome measureStudy population were linked to the national death registry until 2009. HRs for mortality adjusting for age and year of diagnosis were calculated in the study sample and subgroups with 10 specific cancer sites including thyroid, breast, stomach, cervix, colon or lung cancer using managers, professionals and technical workers as the reference.ResultsWomen in service/sales (HR 1.25, 95% CI 1.15 to 1.35) and blue-collar occupations (HR 1.34, 95% CI 1.25 to 1.44) had poorer survival for all cancer sites combined, while blue-collar workers showed poorer survival for lung (HR 1.41, 95% CI 1.14 to 1.77), breast (HR 1.28, 95% CI 1.06 to 1.54), cervical cancer (HR 1.42, 95% CI 1.02 to 2.06) and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (HR 1.69, 95% CI 1.09 to 2.77) compared with women in professional and managerial positions.ConclusionWe found substantial and significant inequalities in overall survival by the occupational group among Korean women with cancer, even in the context of universal access to cancer screening and treatment.

Class Matters: U.S. versus U.K. Measures of Occupational Disparities in Access to Health Services and Health Status in the 2000 U.S. National Health Interview Survey

To inform current debates over whether occupational class is causally linked to health inequities, the authors used data from the 2000 U.S. National Health Interview Survey to compare occupational disparities in access to health services, socioeconomic resources, and health status, using (1) the United Kingdom's new National Statistics Socio-Economic Classification (NS-SEC), premised on type of labor contract (salaried vs. hourly wage) and class position (employer, self-employed, supervisory and non-supervisory employee), and (2) the conventional U.S. occupational categories, premised on status and skill. Analyses included all working-age adults (age 25 to 64) for whom data on occupation and race/ethnicity were available (N = 22,500). Risk of inadequate access to health services, poverty, and low education were two times greater for persons in NS-SEC class 5 versus class 1, compared with blue-collar versus white-collar, and for both measures persons with the worst health status were in jobs that afforded the least access to health care. Controlling for earned income and workplace health insurance markedly reduced health service disparities, especially for the NS-SEC measure, thereby implying structural characteristics of jobs are causally relevant for resources and benefits necessary to address health inequities in the United States.