Perceived barriers to facemask adherence in the covid-19 pandemic in Pakistan-A cross-sectional survey

Abstract

Objective To explore perceived barriers associated with facemask adherence to prevent spread of COVID-19 spread in Pakistani population. Methodology 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. Results 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). Conclusion 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.

An assessment of the health belief model (HBM) properties as predictors of COVID-19 preventive behaviour

“…Although the multifaceted benefits of face masks are sufficiently known, the frequency and acceptance of wearing masks remain controversial among the general population due to the challenges posed by wearing face masks for long periods. According to recent studies, the most common reported hurdles to face mask adherence were physical and social discomfort, difficulty breathing, glasses fogging, financial reasons, headache, perioral dermatitis, facial itching and rash/irritation (Abid et al 2022;Fikenzer et al 2020;Scarano et al 2020). Furthermore, face masks hindered face recognition and communication, both verbal and non-verbal, affecting emotional signalling, especially between teachers and students in educational facilities (Carbon 2020; Spitzer 2020).…”