Wearing Of Facemasks Research Articles

The Effect of Face Mask Wear on the Ocular Surface and Contact Lens Microbiome.

As face mask wear can result in the redirection of nasal and oral exhalation toward the ocular region, this study investigated the impact of face mask wear on the conjunctiva, eyelid margin, and contact lens (CL) surface microbiome. In this prospective, cross-over study, experienced CL wearers (N=20) were randomized to wear a face mask for 6 hr/day (minimum) for a week or no mask for a week. The conjunctiva, eyelid, and CLs were then sampled. After a 1-week washout period, participants were crossed over into the alternate treatment for 1 week and sampling was repeated. Sampling was bilateral and randomly assigned to be processed for culturing or 16S ribosomal(r) RNA gene sequencing. Culturing showed no effect of mask wear on the average number of bacterial colonies isolated on the conjunctiva, eyelid, or CL, but there was increased isolation of Staphylococcus capitis on CL samples with mask wear (P=0.040). Culture-independent sequencing found differences in the taxonomic complexity and bacterial composition between the three sites (P<0.001), but there was no effect of bacterial diversity within and between sites. Mask wear did not impact dry eye or CL discomfort, but increased ocular surface staining was reported (P=0.035). Mask wear did not substantially alter the microbiome of the conjunctiva, eyelid margin, or CL surfaces in uncompromised healthy eyes.

The association between attitude towards facemasks, quality of donation experience and relationship with healthcare providers: A cross-sectional exploratory study.

Facemasks represent an essential measure of prevention against the spread of infectious diseases; however, they lessen the ability to convey and understand emotions through facial expressions. In blood donation settings, facemask wearing could interfere with professionals' tasks, reduce the satisfaction of blood donors and affect their future blood donation behaviour. This preliminary cross-sectional study explored the association of mandatory facemask wearing with the quality of the blood donation process at the end of the coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. A sample of 615 voluntary unpaid Italian blood and plasma donors completed an online survey assessing their attitude towards facemask wearing, the perceived distress due to facemasks in the different steps of the donation process, self-reported vasovagal reactions after donation and the intention to donate again. Nearly 24% of donors reported a worsened quality of the donation process due to facemask wearing, and 36% reported moderate to severe distress during the donation itself. Donors with a more negative attitude towards facemasks reported a worse donation experience, mainly related to the interactions and the communication with physicians and nurses, and a higher probability of experiencing vasovagal reactions at their last donation. No significant correlations were observed between negative facemask attitudes towards facemask wearing, distress or future intention to donate blood/plasma. Facemasks have worsened the quality of blood and plasma donations for one fourth of donors, confirming the interference with the quality of communications and relationships with healthcare professionals.

Facemask acne attenuation through modulation of indirect microbiome interactions

During the COVID-19 pandemic, facemasks played a pivotal role in preventing person-person droplet transmission of viral particles. However, prolonged facemask wearing causes skin irritations colloquially referred to as ‘maskne’ (mask + acne), which manifests as acne and contact dermatitis and is mostly caused by pathogenic skin microbes. Previous studies revealed that the putative causal microbes were anaerobic bacteria, but the pathogenesis of facemask-associated skin conditions remains poorly defined. We therefore characterized the role of the facemask-associated skin microbiota in the development of maskne using culture-dependent and -independent methodologies. Metagenomic analysis revealed that the majority of the facemask microbiota were anaerobic bacteria that originated from the skin rather than saliva. Previous work demonstrated direct interaction between pathogenic bacteria and antagonistic strains in the microbiome. We expanded this analysis to include indirect interaction between pathogenic bacteria and other indigenous bacteria classified as either ‘pathogen helper (PH)’ or ‘pathogen inhibitor (PIn)’ strains. In vitro screening of bacteria isolated from facemasks identified both strains that antagonized and promoted pathogen growth. These data were validated using a mouse skin infection model, where we observed attenuation of symptoms following pathogen infection. Moreover, the inhibitor of pathogen helper (IPH) strain, which did not directly attenuate pathogen growth in vitro and in vivo, functioned to suppress symptom development and pathogen growth indirectly through PH inhibitory antibacterial products such as phenyl lactic acid. Taken together, our study is the first to define a mechanism by which indirect microbiota interactions under facemasks can control symptoms of maskne by suppressing a skin pathogen.

High CO2 exposure due to facemask wear is unlikely to impair cognition even in a warm environment after a long-term adaptation

There is a lack of consensus regarding the impact of elevated indoor CO2 exposure on cognition. COVID-19 provided an opportunity to study responses to long-term elevated CO2 exposure from facemask wear. Such an opportunity allows us to avoid exposing participants to elevated CO2 levels not typically experienced in real-life settings, potentially increasing the ecological validity of our experimental design. Further, the worsening warmness during summer necessitates studies and understanding of peoples’ cognition with combined stressors of both heat and CO2 accumulation. In this work, we recruited 60 college students to understand whether facemask wear elevates local CO2 levels and, if so, the extent to which it impacts cognition in warm conditions. Subjects remained in a controlled summer environmental room (temperature 31.5 °C, relative humidity 30 %) for 90 min with or without facemasks. Participants completed six cognitive tests in a random order and answered surveys using computer-based software. Ten experimental subjects had a second 30 min visit to measure CO2 concentration at the ala of the nose with and without surgical masks. The results show that wearing a surgical mask sharply increased CO2 concentration near the nose by 15,000 ppm. Our analysis showed that the experimental group with facemask wear did not exhibit significantly different cognition performance except for short-term memory which was higher instead of lower than the control group. Participants with facemask wear showed significantly lower risk-taking, possibly attributed to thermal discomfort. Nevertheless, no significance in cognition or decision-making was observed after controlling the familywise error rate using the Bonferroni correction. We hypothesize that the insignificant difference might be caused by adaptation to long-term wear and high CO2 exposure in daily life during COVID-19, which cannot be revealed in the studies prior to the pandemic.

A Descriptive Analytical Study to Assess the Knowledge and Practice of Proper Face Mask Wearing among Healthcare Professionals, Patients and Attendants in a Tertiary Care Center of North India

A Descriptive Analytical Study to Assess the Knowledge and Practice of Proper Face Mask Wearing among Healthcare Professionals, Patients and Attendants in a Tertiary Care Center of North India

Students' mental health during the pandemic: results of the observational cross-sectional COVID-19 MEntal health inTernational for university Students (COMET-S) study.

The aim of the study was to search rates of depression and mental health in university students, during the COVID-19 pandemic. This is an observational cross-sectional study. A protocol gathering sociodemographic variables as well as depression, anxiety and suicidality and conspiracism was assembled, and data were collected anonymously and online from April 2020 through March 2021. The sample included 12,488 subjects from 11 countries, of whom 9,026 were females (72.2%; aged 21.11 ± 2.53), 3,329 males (26.65%; aged 21.61 ± 2.81) and 133 "non-binary gender" (1.06%; aged 21.02 ± 2.98). The analysis included chi-square tests, correlation analysis, ANCOVA, multiple forward stepwise linear regression analysis and Relative Risk ratios. Dysphoria was present in 15.66% and probable depression in 25.81% of the total study sample. More than half reported increase in anxiety and depression and 6.34% in suicidality, while lifestyle changes were significant. The model developed explained 18.4% of the development of depression. Believing in conspiracy theories manifested a complex effect. Close to 25% was believing that the vaccines include a chip and almost 40% suggested that facemask wearing could be a method of socio-political control. Conspiracism was related to current depression but not to history of mental disorders. The current study reports that students are at high risk for depression during the COVID-19 pandemic and identified specific risk factors. It also suggested a role of believing in conspiracy theories. Further research is important, as it is targeted intervention in students' groups that are vulnerable both concerning mental health and conspiracism.

A threat or not? A global-scale investigation on microplastics inhalation during the first-ever worldwide face-mask wearing against the COVID-19 pandemic

&lt;p&gt;A spike in public attention on whether wearing masks will increase microplastics (MPs) inhalation has recently been triggered by the major transformation in widespread masking in public ever since the pandemic. To timely address this question and provide reliable insights for public health recommendations, mask users, and producers, we developed a platform based on a custom inhalation simulator, and conducted comparative measurements to investigate masks as both a source of MP release and a barrier to MP inhalation. We examined 209 mask brands from 46 countries/regions, covering multiple filtration and quality levels. Our kinetic study revealed that MP leaching primarily occurs during the initial period of wearing a new mask. Subsequently, masks act as a barrier, reducing MP inhalation compared to not wearing a mask. Hence, frequently changing masks or using masks from unproper manufacture process may not be a wise choice. We also observed significant variations in MP inhalation character among different quality levels and brands, indicating the need of future safety standards to this end. Overall, the estimated worldwide inhalation of MPs during the pandemic office hours is 1.16 times that of the pre-pandemic era. However, the impact of MP inhalation could be changed by wearing masks with higher filtration grade (and better quality). For instance, if everyone were to wear FFP-3 masks, a 28.8% reduction in MP inhalation would be expected compared to not wearing a mask.&lt;/p&gt;

Behavioral Beliefs Predict Recommended Behaviors, Especially When Trust in Public Health Sources is Low: Evidence from a Longitudinal Study of Three COVID-19 Prevention Behaviors Among U.S. Adults

Public distrust in official sources of health information and uncertainty about novel guidelines may discourage engagement in recommended disease prevention practices. The current study tests the hypothesis that building confidence in positive behavioral outcomes may support recommendation following even in the context of low trust in recommendation sources. This set of longitudinal studies examines the main and interaction effects of trust in official sources and behavioral beliefs in their prediction of recommended COVID-19 prevention behaviors (facemask wearing, social distancing, vaccination). Repeated measurement data were collected from a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults in May/June 2020 (T1; n = 1074), July 2020 (T2; n = 889), and April/June 2021 (T3; n = 750). All five tests, using lagged linear regression, found negative interactions between trust and behavioral beliefs, as hypothesized; three were significant (T1-T2: facemask wearing B=-0.10, SE = 0.04; T1-T3: social distancing B=-0.20, SE = 0.06; T2-T3 vaccination B=-0.27, SE = 0.10) and two were consistent albeit not significant (T1-T3: social distancing B=-0.13, SE = 0.08; T1-T3: facemask wearing B=-0.11, SE = 0.06). Supporting hypotheses, trust in recommendation sources predicted behavior most among those who were less certain about behavioral outcomes and confidence in behavioral benefits predicted behavior most among those with low trust in recommendation sources. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Strong Social Ties and Adherence to Face Mask Wearing in COVID-19 Pandemic in Dagestan, North Caucasus

Strong Social Ties and Adherence to Face Mask Wearing in COVID-19 Pandemic in Dagestan, North Caucasus

Prolonged facemask wearing among hospital workers and dry eye – a mixed-methods study

BackgroundProlonged facemask wearing may have negatively affected essential workers with dry eye. We conducted a mixed-methods study to examine and understand the associations of the ocular surface, periocular environment, and dry eye-related symptoms among hospital workers across the job spectrum with prolonged facemask use.MethodsWe recruited clinical and non-clinical hospital workers with self-reported symptoms of dry eye and prolonged facemask use. We measured symptoms using the 5-item Dry Eye Questionnaire and the Ocular Surface Disease Index (OSDI). Objective ocular signs included corneal and conjunctival staining, fluorescein tear break up time (TBUT), meibography, tear film interferometry, and periocular humidity. We compared symptoms and signs across levels of periocular humidity, dry eye severity, facemask type, and job type. Participants with moderate or severe dry eye symptoms (OSDI > = 23) were invited for a semi-structured, one-on-one interview.ResultsWe enrolled 20 clinical and 21 non-clinical hospital workers: 27% were 40 years or older, 76% were female, 29% reported a race other than White, and 20% were Hispanic. Seventeen individuals participated in the semi-structured interviews. From the quantitative analyses, we found that 90% of participants reported worsened severity of dry eye at work due to facemasks. Although wearing facemasks resulted in higher periocular humidity levels compared with not wearing facemasks, 66% participants reported increased airflow over their eyes. Findings from the qualitative interviews supported the finding that use of facemasks worsened dry eye symptoms, especially when facemasks were not fitted around the nose. The data did not suggest that non-clinical hospital workers experienced a greater impact of dry eye than clinical workers.ConclusionsHealthcare providers and patients with dry eye should be educated about the discomfort and the ocular surface health risks associated with inadequately fitted facemasks. Wearing a fitted facemask with a pliable nose wire appears to mitigate the upward airflow.

Increasing Face Mask Wearing in Autistic Individuals Using Behavior Analytic Interventions: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.

The current review aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of behavior-analytic procedures in increasing face mask-wearing in autistic individuals. This comes following recommended guidance during the COVID-19 pandemic. A systematic review and meta-analysis were completed of peer-reviewed and grey literature. Six databases were searched and seven studies using single-case experimental designs met the eligibility criteria which were then quality appraised. Data were extracted on participant characteristics, study design, independent and dependent variables, fidelity, generalization, maintenance, and social validity outcomes. Both the non-overlap of all pairs and Baseline Corrected TAU were used to estimate effect size. Two studies were rated strong and borderline strong quality and five were rated as adequate or below. All studies showed positive outcomes for mask-wearing, with an average of 0.92 for non-overlap of all pairs and 0.47 for Baseline Corrected Tau effect sizes. The most common and effective procedures for increasing mask-wearing were graded exposure and differential and positive reinforcement. Factors such as mode of delivery, implementer, and setting did not appear to influence study outcomes. Procedures were found to be rated as acceptable by parents and professionals in five of the studies. The existing literature on increasing face mask-wearing in autistic individuals provides promising findings to add to existing literature around increasing tolerance to medical equipment and hygiene practices in autistic populations. However, these findings are based on a small sample size, with six of the studies taking place in the United States with varying study quality.

Face-Mask Ownership and Handling Patterns During the First Wave of Covid-19 Pan-demic in Ekiti State, Southwest, Nigeria

Background: Wearing of face-masks remains one of the most prominent non-pharmaceutical pre-ventive interventions against transmission of COVID-19 virus and other infectious diseases. In this study, we evaluated facemask ownership and handling patterns during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Ekiti State, located in southwestern Nigeria. Methods: We conducted an online cross-sectional survey among residents above age 18, within three Local Government Areas (Ado-Ekiti, Oye-Ekiti, and Ikole-Ekiti) in the State. Five hundred fifty-three respondents consented to the study procedures and completed the close-ended question-naire shared via social media. Data obtained were entered into Microsoft Excel Software and sub-sequently analyzed in SPSS 20.0 software for basic descriptive statistics. The association between variables was also examined using chi-square tests and the significant level was set at 95%. Results: Findings showed an ownership rate of 98.1%. Over half of the respondents, 305(57.5%), wore face-mask regularly 305 (57.5%), while 170(32.1%) occasionally wore masks and 55 (10.4%) rarely wore masks. Furthermore, majority of the respondents 470 (90.2%) wore facemask appropriately to cover both nose and mouth. However, about one-third of the participants 123(29.5%) wore facemask under their nose, covering only their mouth. Majority of the participants 308 (60.0%) touch their face and mask intermittently, and only 291(56.0%) clean their hands after removing their masks. Conclusion: This study highlights the need for increased awareness on proper handling of face-masks to curtail transmission of COVID-19 virus, or other airborne infections..

The Experiences of Autistic People When Facemask Wearing and Interacting with Masked Individuals.

The World Health Organization recommended that individuals use a facemask to prevent the ongoing spread of COVID-19. Many governments implemented this recommendation into law. However, the increased usage of facemasks may have had particular impacts on the autistic population, due to differences in emotion processing, sensory issues, and anxiety about regularly changing rules. This research aimed to investigate the lived experiences of autistic people when wearing facemasks and their experiences interacting with others wearing facemasks. First, the research team conducted a content analysis of social media posts (n = 124) created by autistic individuals. Based on this, we developed a novel questionnaire and distributed it so that autistic adults could share their facemask experiences (n = 49). Seven main themes were identified from the social media analyses: general attitudes toward masks, sensory issues, "wear-a-mask" message, rules and expectations, sunflower lanyards, social problems and benefits, and mask exemption. Secondary questionnaire responses highlighted that the experience of facemasks was mixed. Many individuals experienced sensory issues. Yet, for some individuals, there were benefits: they did not have to monitor their facial expressions to camouflage their autistic responses. Participants reported differing opinions on the topic of mask exemption, and the sunflower lanyard as a symbol of mask exemption. Data did not suggest anxiety around rule changes but did suggest feelings of anger at others who were perceived not to be following the rules. These findings highlight the mixed experiences of autistic people with facemasks and suggest lessons for future events in which there are rapid changes to public health messaging.

Real-Time Face Mask Classification with Convolutional Neural Network for Proper and Improper Face Mask Wearing

Since the discovery of COVID-19, the wearing of a face mask has been recognized as an effective means of curbing the spread of most infectious respiratory diseases. A face mask must completely enclose the lips and nose properly for effective prevention of the disease. Some people still refuse to wear the mask, either out of annoyance or difficulty, or they are just wearing it incorrectly, which diminishes the mask's effectiveness and renders it worthless. The deep learning models described in this research provide a mechanism for assessing whether a face mask is being worn correctly or incorrectly using images. For both training and testing, the suggested method makes use of MaskedFace-Net dataset that contains annotated photos of an individual's face with proper and improper masks. Threshold optimizations are applied to produce significant results of prediction when comparing ResNet50, MobileNetV2 and DenseNet121 models. It is observed that better performance can be achieved with having accuracy as the target evaluation metric and reaching accuracy levels of 97.6%, 99.0%, and 99.8% for ResNet50, DenseNet121, and MobileNetV2, respectively after threshold optimization. As an outcome, DenseNet121 outperformed the other evaluated models when accuracy, recall, and precision metrics were used to assess the testing set. The face mask categorization can be used to automatically monitor face masks in real-time in public locations like hospitals, airports, shopping complexes and congested spaces to verify compliance with the published guidelines by the higher authorities in a country, making the results valuable for future use.

Psychological Behavior and Compliance of the General Population with Facemasks during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Implications for the Future

Background: Globally people have succumbed to viral infections that posed a stupendous threat. Community wearing of facemask helped lowering the incidence of COVID-19. The objective was to determine the public opinion regarding prolonged mask-wearing practice, and to find out the behavioral differences as pertinent compensations for not wearing that may help combat pandemics because of emerging infections.&#x0D; Methodology: This cross-sectional study carried out in the outpatient departments of Military Hospital (MH) Rawalpindi, Pakistan from January to June 2021 after ethical approval. Participants selected by non-probability convenience sampling technique of different residential, economic and educational backgrounds, above 16 years of age, from both genders to give their opinion on a validated questionnaire, “Multidimensional face mask perceptions scale” with eight domains.&#x0D; Results: Among 175 participants, almost 81.7% participants were of the view that when they do not wear mask it is because facemasks get overheated and disrupt the breathing, 60.6% adopted compensation ways by avoiding people and 45.7% considered its wearing a hassle. Female participants felt more uncomfortable by disrupted breathing (p =0.029), male participants reflected about value of independence (p&lt;0.001), and participants from rural area thought a difficult access to get facemasks (p =0.003).&#x0D; Conclusion: The most likely reason for not wearing mask among participants was uncomfortable breathing. The other reasons includes adopting social distancing guidelines as a compensatory measure, finding facemask wearing practice a hassle, interference with freedom and access issues by rural population. Designing and implementing awareness sessions may halt such spread of pandemics because of emerging infections.

Novel risk patterns of vasovagal reactions in NZ blood donations complicated by COVID-19 restrictions.

Vasovagal reactions (VVRs) are common but complex donor adverse reactions (DAEs) in blood donations. VVRs have been extensively studied with a multitude of risk factors identified including young age, female gender and first-time donor status. How they may interplay remains obscure. A total of 1,984,116 blood donations and 27,952 immediate VVRs (iVVRs) and 1,365 delayed VVRs (dVVRs) reported between 2011 and 2021 in NZ were used in multivariate logistic regression analyses each concerning donations with iVVRs as cases and those free of DAEs as controls. For each analysis stepwise selection was used to identify the best model and risk factors carrying significant main effects and/or interactions. Identified interactions informed further in-depth regression analyses to dissect iVVR risk patterns. Over 95% of VVRs were iVVRs that had lower female preponderance and deferrals than dVVRs. iVVRs had a school seasonal pattern in whole blood donations driven by first-time donors from schools/colleges, and interactions between gender and age group differentiating the first-time from repeat donations. Subsequent regression analyses identified the known and novel risk factors of year and mobile collection sites and their interactions. iVVR rates were roundly elevated in 2020 and 2021 probably because of COVID-19 restrictions like facemask wearing. Exclusion of the 2020 and 2021 data removed the interactions with year, but confirmed interactions of gender with mobile collection sites (p = 6.2e-07) in first-time donations only and with age group in repeat donations only (p < 2.2e-16), together indicating young female donors at the highest risk of iVVRs. Our results also revealed that donation policy changes contributed to the year effects; donors had a lower iVVR risk at mobile sites than well-medicalized donation centers probably because of under-reporting. Modeling statistical interactions is valuable in identifying odds and revealing novel iVVR risk patterns and insights into blood donations.

The Role of Vaccination and Face Mask Wearing on COVID-19 Infection and Hospitalization: A Cross-Sectional Study of the MENA Region.

Since the emergence of the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, the disease has affected more than 675 million people worldwide, including more than 6.87 million deaths. To mitigate the effects of this pandemic, many countries established control measures to contain its spread. Their riposte was based on a combination of pharmaceutical (vaccination) and non-pharmaceutical (such as facemask wearing, social distancing, and quarantine) measures. In this way, cross-sectional research was conducted in Algeria from 23 December 2021 to 12 March 2022 to investigate the effectiveness of preventative interventions in lowering COVID-19 infection and severity. More specifically, we investigated the link between mask-wearing and infection on one side, and the relationship between vaccination and the risk of hospitalization on the other. For this purpose, we used binary logistic regression modeling that allows learning the role of mask-wearing and vaccination in a heterogeneous society with respect to compliance with barrier measures. This study determined that wearing a mask is equally important for people of all ages. Further, findings revealed that the risk of infection was 0.79 times lower among those who were using masks (odds ratio (OR) = 0.79; confidence interval (CI) 95% = 0.668-0.936; p-value = 0.006). At the same time, vaccination is a necessary preventive measure as the risk of hospitalization increases with age. Compared with those who did not get vaccinated, those who got vaccinated were 0.429 times less likely to end up in the hospital (OR = 0.429; CI95% = 0.273-0.676; p < 0.0001). The model performance demonstrates significant relationships between the dependent and independent variables, with the absence of over-dispersion in both studied models, such as the Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) scores. These findings emphasize the significance of preventative measures and immunization in the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic.

COVID-19 Safety Protocols: Do Commuters Prefer Public Transport after Relaxation of Safety Protocol Enforcement?

There is a current discourse on how COVID-19 will impact future use of public services by people. At the time of writing this paper, most countries around the globe have relaxed safety protocol enforcement. This may change individual use of public transport, and policy implementations. The study mainly used Multinomial Logistic Regression (MLR) to examine the use of public transport ridership after the relaxation of COVID-19 safety protocol enforcement. A survey was used to collect data from 1692 respondents across Ghana partly online and partly face-to-face interviews from April 20^th, 2022 to June 5^th, 2022. The preliminary findings show that the use of private cars declined during the enforcement of safety protocols. However, after relaxation of safety protocol enforcement, the use of private transport increased more than public transport. The Relative Importance Index revealed that 'facemask wearing covering both nose and mouth', 'reduction in the number of occupants per vehicle', 'the use of alcohol-based hand sanitizer', and 'vehicles cleaned after every trip' were the most important safety protocols perceived to prevent infection of virus. However, the MLR model shows that largely, relaxation of mandatory facemask wearing, social distancing, hand hygiene, and disinfection of transport could decrease public transport ridership. These findings suggest that the COVID-19 infection anxiety has not faded and could decrease public transport ridership. To relieve the anxiety regarding virus infection through the use of public transportation, the government needs to take appropriate measures to lower the perceived risk of infection.

Estimation and sensitivity analysis of a COVID-19 model considering the use of face mask and vaccination

To model the COVID-19 infection and develop effective control measures, this paper proposes an SEIR-type epidemic model considering the impact of face-mask wearing and vaccination. Firstly, the effective reproduction number and the threshold conditions are obtained. Secondly, based on the data of South Korea from January 20, 2022 to March 21, 2022, the model parameters are estimated. Finally, a sensitivity analysis and the numerical study are conducted. The results show that the face-mask wearing is associated with 83% and 90% reductions in the numbers of cumulative cases and newly confirmed cases, respectively, after a period of 60 days, when the face mask wearing rate increases by 15%. Furthermore, the vaccination rate is associated with 75% and 80% reductions in the numbers of cumulative cases and the newly confirmed cases, respectively, after the same period of 60 days when the vaccination rate is increased by 15%. A combined measure involving face-mask wearing and vaccination may be more effective and reasonable in preventing and controlling this infection. It is also suggested that disease control departments should strongly recommended the wearing of face masks s as well as vaccination to prevent the unvaccinated people from becoming infected.

Unmasking the truth: Experimental evidence of facemask compliance in Bangladesh, Kenya, and Nigeria during the COVID-19 pandemic.

High levels of compliance with public health measures are critical to ensure a successful response to the COVID-19 pandemic and other public health emergencies. However, most data on compliance are self-reported and the tendency to overreport due to social desirability could yield biased estimates of actual compliance. A list experiment is a widely used method to estimate social desirability bias in self-reported estimates of sensitive behaviours. We estimate rates of compliance with facemask mandates in Kenya, Nigeria, and Bangladesh using data from phone surveys conducted in March-April 2021. Data on compliance were collected from two different survey modules: a self-reported compliance module (stated) and a list experiment (elicited). We find large gaps between stated and elicited rates of facemask wearing for different groups depending on specific country contexts and high levels of overreporting of facemask compliance in self-reported surveys: there was an almost 40 percentage point gap in Kenya, 30 percentage points in Nigeria, and 20 percentage points in Bangladesh. We also observe differences in rates of self-reported facemask wearing among key groups but not using the elicited responses from the list experiment, which suggest that social desirability bias may vary by demographics. Data collected from self-reported surveys may not be reliable to monitor ongoing compliance with public health measures. Moreover, elicited compliance rates indicate levels of mask wearing are likely much lower than those estimated using self-reported data.