Nutritional Advice El Mondo
Objectives:
Does face mask with or without hand wash reduce influenza-like illness (ILI) in community settings?
Study design:
This review article included 9 cluster RCTs. Of the 9 RCTs, 6 were done in household setting and 2 were done with university students as participants in university residence halls.
6 of these studies compared three arms of intervention - hand hygiene (hand wash) alone, both hand hygiene and triple-layered facial mask versus no intervention.
Risk of bias was assessed as low (n = 4), medium (n = 3) or high (n = 1) risk.
Publication bias was not significant.
Results and conclusions:
The investigators found no significant association between face mask use and decrease in events of influenza-like illness (ILI) [pooled effect size = -0.17, 95% CI = -0.43 to 0.10, p = 0.23, I2 = 10.9%, n = 5].
The investigators found no significant association between face mask with hand wash and decrease in events of influenza-like illness (ILI) [pooled effect size = -0.09, 95% CI = -0.58 to 0.40, p = 0.71, I2 = 69.4%, n = 6].
The investigators concluded randomized control trials (RCTs) do not show any significant reduction of influenza-like illness (ILI) by the use of face mask with or without hand hygiene (hand wash) in community settings. Well-conducted clinical studies are warranted to determine whether these results can be applied to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Original title:
Facemasks for prevention of viral respiratory infections in community settings: A systematic review and meta-analysis by Aggarwal N, Dwarakanathan V, [...], Ray A.
Additional information of El Mondo:
Find more information/studies on coronavirus right here.