Kwon Sohee, Joshi Amit D, Lo Chun-Han, Drew David A, Nguyen Long H, Guo Chuan-Guo, Ma Wenjie, Mehta Raaj S, Warner Erica T, Astley Christina M, Merino Jordi, Murray Benjamin, Wolf Jonathan, Ourselin Sebastien, Steves Claire J, Spector Tim D, Hart Jaime E, Song Mingyang, VoPham Trang, Chan Andrew T
Clinical and Translational Epidemiology Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
Division of Gastroenterology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
medRxiv. 2020 Nov 13:2020.11.11.20229500. doi: 10.1101/2020.11.11.20229500.
Given the continued burden of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS CoV-2) disease (COVID-19) across the U.S., there is a high unmet need for data to inform decision-making regarding social distancing and universal masking. We examined the association of community-level social distancing measures and individual masking with risk of predicted COVID-19 in a large prospective U.S. cohort study of 198,077 participants. Individuals living in communities with the greatest social distancing had a 31% lower risk of predicted COVID-19 compared with those living in communities with poor social distancing. Self-reported masking was associated with a 63% reduced risk of predicted COVID-19 even among individuals living in a community with poor social distancing. These findings provide support for the efficacy of mask-wearing even in settings of poor social distancing in reducing COVID-19 transmission. In the current environment of relaxed social distancing mandates and practices, universal masking may be particularly important in mitigating risk of infection.
鉴于严重急性呼吸综合征冠状病毒2（SARS-CoV-2）疾病（COVID-19）在美国持续造成负担，对于为社交距离和普遍佩戴口罩相关决策提供依据的数据，存在很高的未满足需求。在一项针对198,077名参与者的大型美国前瞻性队列研究中，我们研究了社区层面的社交距离措施和个人佩戴口罩与预测的COVID-19风险之间的关联。与生活在社交距离措施较差社区的人相比，生活在社交距离措施最严格社区的人预测感染COVID-19的风险低31%。即使在社交距离措施较差社区的人群中，自我报告佩戴口罩也与预测的COVID-19风险降低63%相关。这些发现为即使在社交距离措施较差的情况下佩戴口罩在减少COVID-19传播方面的有效性提供了支持。在当前社交距离规定和措施有所放松的环境下，普遍佩戴口罩对于降低感染风险可能尤为重要。
