Department of Public Health, Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology, Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan.
Oral Sciences, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom.
PLoS One. 2022 May 19;17(5):e0267376. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0267376. eCollection 2022.
To explore perceived barriers associated with facemask adherence to prevent spread of COVID-19 spread in Pakistani population.
A cross sectional study was conducted from 25-July 2020 to 5-August 2020. Participants of both genders of age >17 years, currently residing in Pakistan, who had access to internet and understood English were included in the survey. The survey was designed on Google form and was distributed digitally across different areas of Pakistan via social media. Survey included questions regarding socio-demographics, facemask adherence and perceived barriers related to facemask adherence such as perceived risks, health concerns, comfort, social influences, religious/cultural norms and social protocols and health recommendations. SPSS version 23 was used to analyze data. Independent t-test/One-way ANOVA was applied to assess significant difference between perceived barriers to wear face mask and socio-demographic factors, p-value ≤0.05 was taken as statistically significant. Post-hoc LSD test was also applied where applicable.
Only 20% of the participants reported non-adherence to facemask. Amongst these participants, majority agreed that comfort was the main barrier precluding them from wearing a mask, 89.4% subjects saying that it was too hot to wear it and 84.1% saying that a mask was too uncomfortable to wear. Whereas, 82.1% highly agreed that difficulty in breathing is perceived barrier related to facemask usage. Statistically significant difference was found between health concerns with gender (p = 0.031), locality (p = 0.001) and religion (p = 0.03); comfort with locality (p = 0.007); social influences with gender (p = 0.001), ethnicity (p = 0.001) and locality (p = 0.017); cultural/religious norms with religion (p = 0.001) and social protocols and health recommendations with age (p = 0.015).
Despite of satisfactory facemask adherence, still there are perceived barriers to it. In order to increase utilization of face masks among the general population, strict health policies should be implemented and awareness regarding the importance of face masks should be enhanced by educational interventions.
探讨与预防 COVID-19 传播相关的口罩佩戴认知障碍因素在巴基斯坦人群中的影响。
本研究为一项横断面研究，于 2020 年 7 月 25 日至 8 月 5 日进行。纳入标准为年龄>17 岁、目前居住在巴基斯坦、能使用互联网并能理解英语的男性和女性。采用谷歌表单设计调查问卷，通过社交媒体在巴基斯坦各地进行数字化分发。问卷内容包括社会人口统计学、口罩佩戴情况以及与口罩佩戴相关的认知障碍因素，如感知风险、健康问题、舒适度、社会影响、宗教/文化规范和社会协议及健康建议。使用 SPSS 版本 23 进行数据分析。采用独立 t 检验/单因素方差分析评估佩戴口罩的认知障碍与社会人口统计学因素之间的差异，p 值≤0.05 为具有统计学意义。在适用情况下还应用了 LSD 事后检验。
仅有 20%的参与者报告不遵守口罩佩戴规定。在这些参与者中，大多数人认为舒适度是阻碍他们佩戴口罩的主要因素，89.4%的人表示戴口罩太热，84.1%的人表示口罩佩戴不舒适。然而，82.1%的人高度认为呼吸困难是与口罩使用相关的感知障碍。在健康问题方面，性别（p=0.031）、地理位置（p=0.001）和宗教信仰（p=0.03）之间存在统计学差异，舒适度与地理位置（p=0.007）之间存在统计学差异，社会影响与性别（p=0.001）、种族（p=0.001）和地理位置（p=0.017）之间存在统计学差异，文化/宗教规范与宗教信仰（p=0.001）之间存在统计学差异，社会协议和健康建议与年龄（p=0.015）之间存在统计学差异。
尽管口罩佩戴情况令人满意，但仍存在认知障碍因素。为了提高普通人群对面罩的使用，应实施严格的卫生政策，并通过教育干预措施提高人们对面罩重要性的认识。
