• Project number: F 2597
• Institution: Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAuA)
• Status: Ongoing Project
• Planned end: 2028-05-31

Description:

Little data is available on the risk of infections acquired at work. So far, studies on work-related infectious diseases in Germany have mostly only examined individual clinical pictures, e.g., COVID-19, or occupational sectors, e.g., healthcare.

The aim of this project is therefore to investigate the incidence and prevalence of various infectious diseases in workers depending on their occupational activity and other work-related factors (e.g., management or supervisory activities).

On the one hand, infectious diseases that occur rather rarely in the population and are sometimes notifiable (e.g., tuberculosis, hepatitis B and C) are to be investigated; on the other hand, infectious diseases that occur more frequently and are sometimes less severe (e.g., infections of the upper and lower respiratory tract, gastrointestinal infections) are to be considered.

To answer the research questions, data from the first and second wave of the NAKO Health Study are used, with around 150,000 working people participating in the first survey. In this largest cohort study in Germany, work- and health-related data was collected in addition to information on the occupation held.

The aim of this project is to identify occupational groups with an increased risk of infectious diseases. Based on these results, further targeted studies can be carried out in the future to gain deeper insights into the relation between occupational activity and the occurrence of certain infectious diseases. It can also be examined to what extent further efforts should be made in terms of workplace prevention and thus the protection of employees against infectious diseases.