Association of social distancing and face mask use with risk of COVID-19

Kwon, Sohee; Joshi, Amit D.; Lo, Chun‐Han; Drew, David A.; Nguyen, Long H.; Guo, Chuan‐Guo; Ma, Wenjie; Mehta, Raaj S.; Shebl, Fatma M.; Warner, Erica T.; Astley, Christina M; Merino, Jordi; Murray, Benjamin; Wolf, Jonathan; Ourselin, Sébastien; Steves, Claire J.; Spector, Tim D.; Hart, Jaime E.; Song, Mingyang; VoPham, Trang; Chan, Andrew T.

doi:10.1038/s41467-021-24115-7

Cited by 142 publications

(105 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…Pseudovirus concentrations at a 2 m distance from the source were below the limit of detection (LoD) when no mask was worn, indicating the importance of commonly accepted social distancing (>1.8 m) as a low-cost and low-tech tool for curbing the spread of SARS-CoV-2. This finding is consistent with that of a large prospective U.S. cohort study of 198,077 participants, wherein individuals living in communities with the greatest social distancing were predicted to have a 31% lower risk of predicted COVID-19 than those living in communities with poor social distancing [8] . Hence, it is strongly recommended to use social distancing in all situations during the pandemic.…”

supporting

confidence: 90%

Filtration efficiency of face masks against aerosolized surrogate SARS-CoV-2 at different social distances

Tang

Ding

et al. 2022

Science Bulletin

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supporting

confidence: 90%

Filtration efficiency of face masks against aerosolized surrogate SARS-CoV-2 at different social distances

Tang

Ding

et al. 2022

Science Bulletin

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“…It was noticed that long COVID-19 was significantly associated with male gender and student groups and not with the older age group. This is contrary to studies that reported an association between long COVID-19 and older age (≥40 years) [18] or female gender [22,25]. Older age was correlated with weaker immunity and hence higher susceptibility to long-term complications, while female gender was correlated with biological differences and the apparently higher tendency of females to reporting.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 93%

“…Dental practitioners are generally considered well prepared in cross-infection control measures, including the use of personal protective equipment (PPE), which has contributed to reducing infection rates [17]. Community-based studies, on the other hand, estimated that facemask use was more effective in reducing the risk of COVID-19 infection than distancing [18]. In the context of dental clinical settings, distancing is not applicable, as dental practice is largely carried out in close proximity to the patient, with high possibility of exposure to aerosols [19].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

COVID-19 Infection in Academic Dental Hospital Personnel; A Cross-Sectional Survey in Saudi Arabia

Abu‐Hammad

Alnazzawi

Babkair

et al. 2021

IJERPH

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Background: Close patient contact is an essential component of clinical dental education, which can expose students and faculty to risk of COVID-19 and its sequelae. Methods: The study was a cross-sectional survey conducted among faculty and clinical students at an academic dental hospital in Al Madinah western Saudi Arabia. An online questionnaire was distributed to collect data on prevalence, risk factors, clinical manifestations, and long-term health and socioeconomic complications of COVID-19 infection. Results: Prevalence of COVID-19 was 19.6% among a total of 316 students and faculty. Participants cited family and friends as the primary source of infection (40.3%). Among cross-infection control practices, they cited failure to practice distancing as the primary reason for infection transmission (61.3%). The disease was symptomatic in 85.5% of infected personnel. Most frequently reported clinical manifestations were: fever, cough, malaise, and diarrhoea (74.1%, 56.5%, 40.3%, 32.3%, respectively). A proportion of 37.1% of infected personnel stated that they had long COVID-19, and 58.3% of infected students reported deteriorated academic achievement. Conclusions: One in five of clinical dental students and their faculty had COVID-19. Most cases were symptomatic, and a large proportion developed long COVID or adverse socioeconomic consequences. Regardless of the severity of symptoms encountered during the acute stage of COVID-19 infection, all infected dental healthcare personnel should be followed, especially those who report long COVID. Continuous follow-up and assistance for infected students may be warranted to mitigate the potential academic and mental drawbacks caused by the pandemic. Dental schools should adopt clear policies regarding COVID-19 transmission and prevention and should implement them in their infection-control education and training.

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“…Second, our relative avoidance bias measure does not differentiate between a tendency to avoid unmasked individuals and a tendency to approach mask-wearing individuals. However, the latter tendency would also not be optimal, because wearing a mask does not compensate for the increased risk of infection in close distance (Kwon et al, 2021 ; Li et al, 2021 ). Third, spontaneous approach-avoidance tendencies toward individuals wearing a face mask were assessed using a computerized reaction time task (AAT).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Self-reported mask-related worrying reduces relative avoidance bias toward unmasked faces in individuals with low Covid19 anxiety syndrome

et al. 2021

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Facial masks have become and may remain ubiquitous. Though important for preventing infection, they may also serve as a reminder of the risks of disease. Thus, they may either act as cues for threat, priming avoidance-related behavior, or as cues for a safe interaction, priming social approach. To distinguish between these possibilities, we assessed implicit and explicit evaluations of masked individuals as well as avoidance bias toward relatively unsafe interactions with unmasked individuals in an approach-avoidance task in an online study. We further assessed Covid19 anxiety and specific attitudes toward mask-wearing, including mask effectiveness and desirability, hindrance of communication from masks, aesthetic appeal of masks, and mask-related worrying. Across one sample of younger (18–35 years, N = 147) and one of older adults (60+ years, N = 150), we found neither an average approach nor avoidance bias toward mask-wearing compared to unmasked individuals in the indirect behavior measurement task. However, across the combined sample, self-reported mask-related worrying correlated with reduced avoidance tendencies toward unmasked individuals when Covid19 anxiety was low, but not when it was high. This relationship was specific to avoidance tendencies and was not observed in respect to explicit or implicit preference for mask-wearing individuals. We conclude that unsafe interaction styles may be reduced by targeting mask-related worrying with public interventions, in particular for populations that otherwise have low generalized Covid19 anxiety.

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Association of social distancing and face mask use with risk of COVID-19

Cited by 142 publications

References 44 publications

Filtration efficiency of face masks against aerosolized surrogate SARS-CoV-2 at different social distances

Filtration efficiency of face masks against aerosolized surrogate SARS-CoV-2 at different social distances

COVID-19 Infection in Academic Dental Hospital Personnel; A Cross-Sectional Survey in Saudi Arabia

Self-reported mask-related worrying reduces relative avoidance bias toward unmasked faces in individuals with low Covid19 anxiety syndrome

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