The impact of face masks on children—A mini review

Abstract

Aim Face masks are essential during the COVID‐19 pandemic, and the United Nations Children's Fund and the World Health Organization, recommend that they are used for children aged six years and older. However, parents are increasingly expressing concerns about whether these might be physically harmful. This mini review assessed the evidence. Method We conducted a narrative review on the effects of mask wearing on physiological variables in children, using PubMed, the Cochrane Library and the World Health Organization COVID‐19 Database up to 7 November 2020. The lack of paediatric studies prompted a second search for adult studies. Results We only found two paediatric studies, published in 2019 and 2020. The 2020 study was not related to COVID‐19. Only one study, performed with N95 respirators, collected medical parameters, and this did not suggest any harmful effects of gas exchange. The eight adult studies, including four prompted by the pandemic and one on surgeons, reported that face masks commonly used during the pandemic did not impair gas exchange during rest or mild exercise. Conclusion International guidelines recommend face masks for children aged six years and older, but further studies are needed to provide evidence‐based recommendations for different age groups.

Hand hygiene and mask-wearing behaviors and the related factors during the COVID 19 pandemic: A cross-sectional study with secondary school students in Turkey

“…Face masks have become a very important part of daily life around the world since COVID-19 was declared a pandemic ( Eberhart et al, 2021 ). Mask-wearing has especially been proposed as an important risk reduction strategy against virus transmission ( Cheng et al, 2020 ; Esposito & Principi, 2020 ) since it can prevent direct hand-mouth or hand-nose contact and the transmission of respiratory droplets from an infected person, and filter airborne particles ( Bartoszko et al, 2020 ; MacIntyre & Chughtai, 2020 ; Sivaraman et al, 2020 ).…”

Perceptions towards mask use in school children during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic: the Ciao Corona Study

“…Laboratory-based experimental studies investigating short-term effects of various types of masks (e.g., surgical mask, FFP2, or N95 respirators) worn at rest and during exercise on physiological variables and individuals' perception of breathing are controversial. [29][30][31] Long-term studies and benefit-harm assessments of the burden of masks and other mitigation measures, complete closures of schools [32][33][34] , and effect on SARS-CoV-2 transmission mitigation would be needed to evaluate the role of masks in the pediatric population. Yet, as masks are usually only one of several implemented mitigation measures, it will always be challenging to tease out the unique effect of masks on infection control.…”

Einfluss einer Mund-Nase-Maske auf die objektive körperliche Leistungsfähigkeit sowie das subjektive Belastungsempfinden bei gut-trainierten, gesunden Jungen

“…Bei Schulkindern hingegen finden sich bisher lediglich zwei Untersuchungen mit sog. „FFP2 (N95)“ -Masken, jedoch keine Studien zum Einfluss von „chirurgischen“ MNS [ 8 ]. Entsprechend liegen keine Daten zum Einfluss von MNS auf die körperliche/sportliche Leistungsfähigkeit sowie das RPE bei Schulkindern vor.…”