key: cord-297295-lsewt5t2
authors: Matusiak, Łukasz; Szepietowska, Marta; Krajewski, Piotr; Białynicki‐Birula, Rafał; Szepietowski, Jacek C
title: Inconveniences due to the use of face masks during the COVID‐19 pandemic: a survey study of 876 young people
date: 2020-05-14
journal: Dermatol Ther
DOI: 10.1111/dth.13567
sha: 
doc_id: 297295
cord_uid: lsewt5t2

nan

The use of face masks by general population became ubiquitous during the COVID-19

pandemic (1) . Personal protective equipment (PPE) can cause harm to the skin (2) (3) (4) (5) , however, little is known on inconveniences of face masks wearing (4) (5) (6) (7) . This study was undertaken to analyze the most bothersome issues reported by young people using face protection during current viral pandemic.

The survey was created with Google® Forms and posted on Facebook® groups for students in Poland. The recall period was the last 7 days. The data were collected in 48 hours (12 th -14 th , April 2020). At that time wearing face masks in Poland was not mandatory. 2315 answers were received, 8 questionnaires were removed (incompleteness of data). Out of 2307 responders 1393 (60.4%) declared face masks wearing. As 517 (37.1%) participants used several types of face masks they were excluded and finally, 876 questionnaires were considered. The age of the group was 18-27 years. The responses were downloaded for statistical analysis (Statistica 13; Statsoft, Tulsa, OK, USA).

Out of 876 participants only 27 people (3.1%) did not complain of any problems related to face mask wearing. Out of all reported inconveniences, difficulty in breathing appeared to the most common one (35.9%), followed by warming/sweating (21.3%), misting up of the glasses (21.3%) and slurred speech (12.3%). Interestingly, other skin bothersome reactions related to wearing of face masks were reported less often (itch -7.7%, skin irritation -0.9%).

Difficulties in wearing the glasses and limited visibility were rarely reported (0.3% each). In the model of logistic regression analysis we found that wearing surgical masks among the other types of masks showed significantly lower risk for the development of most common bothersome issues, as difficulty in breathing, warming/sweating, glasses misting up, slurred This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

speech and itch (OR=0.42, OR=0.60, OR=0.10, OR=0.17 and OR=0.04, respectively). In contrast, cloth masks use was related to higher risk of difficulty in breathing (OR=1.56), warming/sweating (OR=1.31), glasses misting up (OR=1.92), slurred speech (OR=1.86) and itch (OR=2.99). Respirators were found to be at increased risk only for glasses misting up (OR=1.65) ( Table 1) .

Adverse reactions to PPE were mostly reported in health care workers (HCW) (2-5). To the best of our knowledge we presented for the first time a real life data on the most bothersome aspects of face mask use within general public. We documented that wearing surgical masks was linked to significantly lower risk of adverse reactions. This is supported by Roberge et al. (7) who postulated that surgical mask use at low-moderate work rate was not associated with clinically significant physiological impact. However, some participants complained on skin irritation (11%), moisture build up (11%), sticking to the skin (11%), significant face warmth (26%) and pinching (7%). During the viral pandemics due to shortage of medically graded masks, cloth masks became more popular (8) . Although there is no enough strong evidence the cloth masks may be only slightly less effective than surgical masks in blocking emission of particles. They are thought to be fivefold more effective than not wearing face protection (9) . This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

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