Behavior in the use of face masks in the context of COVID‐19

Abstract

Objectives Investigation of potential erroneous behavior in the general public's use of face masks during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Design We conducted a naturalistic observational study in the period from April to June 2020. Sample In two western Austrian provinces, a total of 2080 persons were observed in front of 24 grocery stores. Measurement The frequencies and types of erroneous behavior in the use of face masks were collected using a standardized observation form. Results A total of 2080 persons were observed. Almost one‐third of all observations ( n = 648; 31.2%) showed erroneous behavior before positioning the face masks. Another 935 (45.0%) persons touched the face mask front during the adjustment via mouth and nose, 501 (24.1%) persons touched the face mask front in the period after the adjustment. A total of 116 (5.6%) persons showed erroneous behavior in each sequence of the observation unit. Overall, almost half of all people observed showed at least one erroneous behavior within the observation period. Conclusions The behavior of the general public in handling face masks is highly error‐prone. Decision makers must increasingly provide accompanying information and educational measures in order to encourage the population at risk to use face masks correctly.

The Effectiveness of Free Face Mask Distribution on Use of Face Masks. A Cluster Randomised Trial in Stovner District of Oslo, Norway

“…In our study, only 3% of those who wore face masks were judged to be wearing them incorrectly, i.e., not covering both mouth and nose. This is very low compared to other studies that have observed face mask use in the community, where the proportion of users with only partial coverage of mouth and nose have been reported to be several times higher [19][20][21]. We have no good explanation for this striking difference, but it does illustrate that face mask practices probably vary considerably across contexts.…”

A systematic review of observational methods used to quantify personal protective behaviours among members of the public during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the concordance between observational and self-report measures in infectious disease health protection

“…We included 48 [ 14 –, 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 , 56 , 57 , 58 , 59 , 60 , 61 ] studies containing an observation component during the COVID-19 pandemic. In total these included at least 116,169 participants and at least 36,060,422 behavioural observational events.…”

Changes in awareness on face mask use in Korea

“…Paradoxically, lack of awareness on the use of face masks has led many people in some nations to not always wear them, which has resulted in large numbers of human losses (Kellerer et al, 2021).…”