Background
Health care workers outside surgical suites in Asia use surgical-type face masks commonly.
Prevention of upper respiratory infection is one reason given, although evidence of
effectiveness is lacking.
Methods
Health care workers in a tertiary care hospital in Japan were randomized into 2 groups:
1 that wore face masks and 1 that did not. They provided information about demographics,
health habits, and quality of life. Participants recorded symptoms daily for 77 consecutive
days, starting in January 2008. Presence of a cold was determined based on a previously
validated measure of self-reported symptoms. The number of colds between groups was
compared, as were risk factors for experiencing cold symptoms.
Results
Thirty-two health care workers completed the study, resulting in 2464 subject days.
There were 2 colds during this time period, 1 in each group. Of the 8 symptoms recorded
daily, subjects in the mask group were significantly more likely to experience headache
during the study period (P < .05). Subjects living with children were more likely to have high cold severity
scores over the course of the study.
Conclusion
Face mask use in health care workers has not been demonstrated to provide benefit
in terms of cold symptoms or getting colds. A larger study is needed to definitively
establish noninferiority of no mask use
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: February 13, 2009
Footnotes
UMIN Clinical Trials Registration number: UMIN000000981.
Conflicts of interest: None to report.
Identification
Copyright
© 2009 Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
