Abstract
This study aims at developing and demonstrating in a real case study a methodology for supporting Occupational Health and Safety Services in the design and assessment of preventive measures to reduce the risks of COVID-19 outbreaks within their entities. The proposed methodology applies the concepts from Social Network Analysis (SNA) to the current challenge of preventing risks of contagion of viruses like SARS-COV-2 among employees. For this purpose, the authors consider a network of employees whose interaction is caused by triggers, which are defined as common circumstances between two workers that may result in contagion, like sharing an office or participating in the same management board. The network cohesion is then evaluated, and those core nodes, which are the most significant contributors to its integration, are identified to be addressed in the design of the preventive measures. The impact of the designed preventive measures on the networks’ cohesion is assessed for its prioritization and further deployment. The methodology has been demonstrated in a real case, a Spanish Research Center, providing promising results in a quick and easy manner. The objective insights provided by its application were demonstrated as very valuable for the Occupational Health and Safety Services in the design and evaluation of the set of preventing measures to be implemented before the return of the employees to the facilities after the Spanish confinement period. The current COVID-19 outbreak brings the need to develop tools and methods to support businesses and institutions in the use of SNA for preventing outbreaks among their employees. Although some literature does exist in the field of SNA application in epidemiology, its adaptation for extensive use by the Occupational and Health Services is still a challenge.
Highlights
In 2020, the whole world is struggling against the SARS-COV-2 coronavirus pandemic
This paper addresses the gap in the application of Social Network Analysis (SNA) for preventing internal outbreaks within workplaces, providing a methodology to support Occupational Health and Safety Services in the design and selection of preventive measures ready to reduce the risk of outbreaks
This paper aims to propose a quick methodology for designing and prioritizing actions able to minimize the risks of outbreaks within workplaces, providing a simple example for its illustration, together with a real case of a given entity, with anonymized actual data
Summary
In 2020, the whole world is struggling against the SARS-COV-2 coronavirus pandemic. Public Health authorities have implemented isolation policies to reduce the loss of human lives, restricting, among others, all the non-essential economic activities. Workplaces have a role in disease transmission, with a substantial impact on public health [2]. SNA has become of great interest [11,12] due to two main advantages [13]: Firstly, a network provides a representation of the social contacts between individuals that are known to significantly influence the disease spread [14,15], and secondly, the analysis of the network structure itself supports the design of efficient plans of intervention or awareness [16]. Two main types of contacts can be considered in the network construction, depending on the virus transmission paths: Personal contacts and geographical contacts. In the case of SARS, with similar transmission paths to SARS-COV-2, it was demonstrated how the use of geographical contacts in the network construction provided valuable results [17], as its inclusion highlighted the network properties affecting the disease transmission. A wider concept of the geographical location is proposed, considering all the triggers that may cause a close contact
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
