Mask use and respiratory symptoms in health care workers
Session I, V or VI – MacIntyre, R
Title of Contribution:
Mask use and respiratory symptoms in health care workers.
Author(s): Wang Quany(1), Dominic Dwyer(2), Yang Peng(1), Holly Seale(3), C Raina MacIntyre(3)
Affiliation(s):
1. Beijing Centers for Disease Control, China.
2. Institute of Clinical Pathology and Microbiology, Westmead Hospital, Australia.
3. School of Public Health and Community Medicine, University of New South Wales, Australia
Abstract:
Countries which have experienced emerging infectious diseases such as SARS, it is reported anecdotally that mask wearing is more common among health care workers, whereas in many developed countries which have not experienced such outbreaks, mask wearing is reportedly lower.
Aim: to describe rates of mask wearing and symptoms of respiratory illness in hospital health care workers in Beijing, China, compared to health care workers in Sydney, Australia.
Methods:
In Beijing, China, a survey of 400 individuals using a two-stage stratified cluster random sampling technique from emergency departments and respiratory wards of 8 hospitals was conducted in 2008. More detailed interview if 50 healthcare workers including doctors and nurses from each hospital was conducted.
We reviewed practices in the emergency departments of 2 large teaching hospitals in Sydney, Australia in 2007, and found that masks were not worn routinely. We conducted a four-week exercise during a high influenza season encouraging staff to wear masks when they were exposed to patients with respiratory illness.
Results:
In Beijing, 82% of doctors and 91% of nurses reported routine wearing of masks – 65% used re-usable cotton masks, and 35% used surgical masks. N95 masks were not routinely used. In contrast, in Sydney, only 4% of health care workers during a high influenza season, even when instructed to wear the mask, and 40% stated they never wore the mask. Vaccination rates for influenza were similar, with 35% of Australians and 30%^ of Chinese reporting vaccination in the study year. 50% of Australians and 56% of Chinese reported having had a respiratory illness during that winter season.
Discussion:
There is a distinctive difference in the culture of mask wearing in Beijing, China, compared to Sydney, Australia, with a far higher proportion of hospital health care workers wearing masks routinely in clinical practice. These are the first data to confirm what has been commonly reported anecdotally. Despite this, rates of vaccination against influenza and rates of respiratory illness were similar, with about half of all health workers reporting a respiratory illness during the winter. Cultural difference as well as perception of risk may be a key factor in the difference in mask wearing.
