Awareness and Practices Regarding 'Long COVID' among Employees of Selected Smart Phone Manufacturing Industries in South India

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Long COVID is a term coined for long term post COVID-19 disease complications. Touted as the 'pandemic after the pandemic' it has significant implications for employment especially on productivity and quality of worker output. Objective(s) 1. To assess the baseline knowledge among employees working in selected smart phone manufacturing companies regarding COVID-19 disease, COVID vaccination and long COVID complications. 2. To assess the prevalence of long COVID complications among the study subjects. Methodology: We followed a quantitative cross-sectional study design between May-Jun 2022 in 6 factories across South India. A semi-structured, face-validated interview schedule was administered to the employees via Google Forms. Data was analyzed using SPSS v.21. Result(s) A total of 118 employees were included in the study. Most employees were male (89.2%), between 25-30 years of age (46.3%) and had completed their Bachelor's degree (71.29%). Most had at least 1-5 years of current work experience (80.5%). Almost 55.1% of the employees had suffered from COVID-19 in the past of which 33.8% had been hospitalised. Only 42.8% of employees knew about long COVID complications and 33.1% knew of only one symptom. None of the employees had taken the booster dose of the vaccine despite 67.8% knowing that the vaccine protected against severe disease. Almost 75% of employees reported to suffer from one or more post COVID complications. Long standing fatigue (16.9%), cough and breathing difficulty (6.1%) were the most common complaints. Conclusion and recommendations: Low awareness regarding long COVID will impact health seeking behavior and increase presenteeism at the workplace. Increasing awareness regarding COVID-19 disease, vaccinations and the post COVID complications through training programmes and health education sessions will bridge the key knowledge gaps identified. Promotion of booster dose vaccination against COVID-19 for all employees will help in reducing the burden of long COVID at the workplace.