Nutritional Advice El Mondo
Face mask may reduce primary respiratory infection risk by 6-15%
Objectives:
Evidence for face-mask wearing in the community to protect against respiratory disease is unclear. Therefore, this review article has been conducted.
Do wearing face masks reduce primary respiratory infection risk?
Study design:
This review article included 33 studies (12 randomised control trials (RCTs)).
While RCTs might underestimate effects due to poor compliance and controls wearing masks, observational studies likely overestimate effects, as mask wearing might be associated with other risk-averse behaviours.
GRADE was low or very low quality.
Results and conclusions:
The investigators found in RCTs that mask wearing non-significantly reduced primary infection by 6% [OR = 0.94, 95% CI = 0.75 to 1.19, I2 = 29%].
The investigators found in cohort studies that mask wearing non-significantly reduced primary infection by 15% [OR = 0.85, 95% CI = 0.32 to 2.27, I2 = 96%].
The investigators found in case-control studies that mask wearing significantly reduced primary infection by 61% [OR = 0.39, 95% CI = 0.18 to 0.84, I2 = 77%].
The investigators found in cross-sectional studies that mask wearing significantly reduced primary infection by 31% [OR = 0.61, 95% CI = 0.45 to 0.85, I2 = 95%].
The investigators found RCTs suggested lowest secondary attack rates when both well and ill household members wore masks [OR = 0.81, 95% CI = 0.48 to 1.37, I2 = 45%].
The investigators found face-mask wearing was mostly protective (the midpoint-estimates of most included studies favoured face-mask wearing) in the general community (3 cohort and 2 case-control of which 2 studies were significantly protective), university residences (2 cluster-randomised RCTs, neither significant at p = 0.05) and in schools (2 cross-sectional studies, neither significantly protective).
The investigators concluded wearing face masks may reduce primary respiratory infection risk, probably by 6-15%. It is important to balance evidence from RCTs and observational studies when their conclusions widely differ and both are at risk of significant bias. COVID-19-specific studies are required.
Original title:
Dementia and outcomes from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pneumonia: A systematic review and meta-analysis by Hariyanto TI, Putri C, […], Kurniawan A.
Link:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7730486/
Additional information of El Mondo:
Find more information/studies on coronavirus right here.