University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.
Xiamen University Malaysia, Sunsuria City, Sepang, Selangor, Malaysia.
Am J Trop Med Hyg. 2021 Aug 9;105(6):1516-1518. doi: 10.4269/ajtmh.21-0566.
Wearing a face mask has been a key approach to contain or slow down the spread of COVID-19 in the ongoing pandemic. However, there is huge heterogeneity among individuals in their willingness to wear face masks during an epidemic. This research aims to investigate the individual heterogeneity to wear face masks and its associated predictors during the COVID-19 pandemic when mask-wearing was not mandatory. Based on a survey of 708 Malaysian adults and a multivariate least-squares fitting analysis, the results reveal a significant variance among individuals in wearing masks, as 34% of the individual adults did not always wear masks in public places. Female individuals, individuals who wash their hands more frequently, and those who reported more availability of personal protective equipment were more likely to practice mask-wearing. The identification of less-compliant groups of mask wearing has critical implications by enabling more specific health communication campaigns.
佩戴口罩一直是控制或减缓 COVID-19 在大流行期间传播的关键方法。然而，在疫情期间，个人佩戴口罩的意愿存在巨大差异。本研究旨在调查 COVID-19 大流行期间个人佩戴口罩的个体异质性及其相关预测因素，当时佩戴口罩并非强制性要求。基于对 708 名马来西亚成年人的调查和多元最小二乘法拟合分析，结果表明，个体在佩戴口罩方面存在显著差异，因为 34%的成年人在公共场所并非总是佩戴口罩。女性个体、洗手频率更高的个体以及报告个人防护设备更充足的个体更有可能佩戴口罩。通过开展更有针对性的健康宣传活动，识别出不太遵守口罩佩戴规定的群体具有重要意义。
