This study is aimed at assessing differences in basic attentional functioning between substantial and minimal work-related exposure to COVID-19 patients in professionals working in a tertiary referral hospital in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Therefore, hospital employees performed a Continuous Visual Attention Test. This test consisted of a 90-second Go/No-Go task with 72 (80%) targets and 18 (20%) nontargets. For each participant, reaction time and intraindividual variability of reaction times of all correct target responses, as well as the number of omission and commission errors, were evaluated. Participants were divided into 2 groups based on their exposure to COVID-19 patients (substantial versus minimal exposure). The substantial exposure group consisted of participants with 24 hours/week or more direct contact with COVID-19 patients. This cut-off was based on the clear division between professionals working and not working with COVID-19 patients and considered that 12-hour and 24-hour daily shifts are common for hospital employees in Brazil. A MANCOVA was performed to examine between-group differences, using age, sleep quality, sex, education level, previous COVID-19 infection, and profession as covariates. Of 124 participants, 80 had substantial exposure and 44 had minimal exposure to COVID-19. The overall MANCOVA reached statistical significance (). Post hoc ANCOVA analysis showed that the substantial exposure group had a statistically significantly higher intraindividual variability of reaction time of all correct target responses (, ). This result remained after removing those with a previous COVID-19 infection (, ) and after matching groups for sample size (, ). No other variables reached statistical significance. Concluding, hospital professionals with a substantial level of exposure to patients with COVID-19 show a significant attention decrement and, thus, may be at a higher risk of accidental SARS-CoV-2 infection.

中文翻译：

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巴西三级转诊医院 COVID-19 卫生专业人员注意力功能评估

本研究旨在评估在巴西里约热内卢一家三级转诊医院工作的专业人员与 COVID-19 患者的大量和最小工作相关暴露之间的基本注意力功能差异。因此，医院员工进行了持续视觉注意力测试。该测试包括一个 90 秒的 Go/No-Go 任务，其中有 72 (80%) 个目标和 18 (20%) 个非目标。对于每个参与者，评估了所有正确目标响应的反应时间和反应时间的个体内变异性，以及遗漏和委托错误的数量。参与者根据他们对 COVID-19 患者的暴露程度（大量暴露与最小暴露）分为 2 组。大量暴露组由每周 24 小时或更直接接触 COVID-19 患者的参与者组成。这一截止日期是基于与 COVID-19 患者一起工作和不工作的专业人员之间的明确划分，并认为 12 小时和 24 小时每天轮班对巴西的医院员工来说很常见。使用年龄、睡眠质量、性别、教育水平、既往 COVID-19 感染和职业作为协变量，进行 MANCOVA 以检查组间差异。在 124 名参与者中，80 人有大量暴露，44 人对 COVID-19 的暴露很少。总体 MANCOVA 达到统计学显着性（以前的 COVID-19 感染，以及职业作为协变量。在 124 名参与者中，80 人有大量暴露，44 人对 COVID-19 的暴露很少。总体 MANCOVA 达到统计学显着性（以前的 COVID-19 感染，以及职业作为协变量。在 124 名参与者中，80 人有大量暴露，44 人对 COVID-19 的暴露很少。总体 MANCOVA 达到统计学显着性（）。事后 ANCOVA 分析表明，大量暴露组在所有正确目标反应的反应时间的个体差异性方面具有统计学上显着更高的差异。, ）。在去除之前感染过 COVID-19 的患者后，这一结果仍然存在（, )和匹配样本大小的组后 (, ）。没有其他变量达到统计显着性。结论是，与 COVID-19 患者大量接触的医院专业人员表现出显着的注意力下降，因此，意外感染 SARS-CoV-2 的风险可能更高。