Adherence to facemask use in public places during the autumn-winter 2020 COVID-19 lockdown in Greece: observational data

Wearing facemasks is of proven efficacy as a public health protective measure against COVID-19. Currently there are no observational data concerning the wearing of facemasks and the adherence to guidelines concerning their handling. Registration of the way passers-by were wearing facemasks at 26 dif...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Annals of general psychiatry Vol. 21; no. 1; p. 9
Main Authors:	Fountoulakis, Konstantinos N, Breda, Joao, Arletou, Marianna P, Charalampakis, Anastasios I, Karypidou, Maria G, Kotorli, Konstantina S, Koutsoudi, Christina G, Ladia, Eleftheria S, Mitkani, Calypso A, Mpouri, Vasiliki N, Samara, Anastasia C, Stravoravdi, Aikaterini S, Tsiamis, Ioannis G, Tzortzi, Aphrodite, Vamvaka, Maria A, Zacharopoulou, Charikleia N, Prezerakos, Panagiotis E, Koupidis, Sotirios A, K Fountoulakis, Nikolaos, Tsapakis, Eva Maria, Konsta, Anastasia, Theodorakis, Pavlos N
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	England BioMed Central Ltd 09-03-2022 BioMed Central BMC
Subjects:	COVID-19 Facemasks Health behavior Management Medical policy Primary Research Public health Greece COVID-19 Facemasks Health behavior
Online Access:	Get full text
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Summary:	Wearing facemasks is of proven efficacy as a public health protective measure against COVID-19. Currently there are no observational data concerning the wearing of facemasks and the adherence to guidelines concerning their handling. Registration of the way passers-by were wearing facemasks at 26 different locations of five major cities in Greece. The results were correlated with the rate of COVID-19 deaths in the region. In total, 119,433 passers-by were registered, 57,043 females (47.8%) and 62,390 males (52.2%). From the total sample, 81.1% were wearing the mask properly, 10.8% had their nose out, 6.2% were wearing it under the jaw, and 1.9% had no mask at all . There was a significant difference between males and females concerning any use of mask. Inappropriate use of was correlated with COVID-19 death rate in the studied region. Our findings suggest that under conditions of mandatory wearing and in central locations of major cities, during walking, proper use of masks is suboptimal, but still contributes with some protection. Fear and risk perception seem to be strong factors contributing to adherence to proper mask wearing.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23
ISSN:	1744-859X 1744-859X
DOI:	10.1186/s12991-022-00386-2