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Public Health Messages About Face Masks Early in the COVID-19 Pandemic: Perceptions of and Impacts on Canadians

Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, Canadians faced much ambiguity in the public health messages around face mask use. As public health messaging plays a pivotal role in the provision of directives during a health crisis, this study examines Canadians’ opinions on the early messaging they received regar...

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Autores principales: Zhang, Ying Shan Doris, Young Leslie, Heather, Sharafaddin-zadeh, Yekta, Noels, Kimberly, Lou, Nigel Mantou
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer US 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7896829/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33611755
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10900-021-00971-8
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author Zhang, Ying Shan Doris
Young Leslie, Heather
Sharafaddin-zadeh, Yekta
Noels, Kimberly
Lou, Nigel Mantou
author_facet Zhang, Ying Shan Doris
Young Leslie, Heather
Sharafaddin-zadeh, Yekta
Noels, Kimberly
Lou, Nigel Mantou
author_sort Zhang, Ying Shan Doris
collection PubMed
description Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, Canadians faced much ambiguity in the public health messages around face mask use. As public health messaging plays a pivotal role in the provision of directives during a health crisis, this study examines Canadians’ opinions on the early messaging they received regarding personal protection, especially around mask use, with the goal of identifying potential improvements to strengthen future health messaging. Nine online focus group interviews with 47 Canadians were conducted. These natural conversations focused on personal protective equipment (PPE) choices, mask-relevant public health information sources, and advice to Canadian authorities to improve public health messaging on mask use. Responses were imported into NVivo for thematic analysis. Four meta-themes of relevance were identified. Despite demonstrating trust in scientific evidence and public health authorities, the inconsistencies in public health messaging fostered confusion, and induced mistrust toward health professionals. Further, several information deficits were identified pertaining to the scientific efficacy, safe use, and disposal of masks. Rooted in loyalty to healthcare workers, these Canadians eschewed using medical grade masks during PPE shortages to ensure a sufficient supply for medical workers. The findings stress that consistency in public health messages should be prioritized, with necessary changes clearly justified and explained. More information should reach the public on the scientific benefits and proper use of masks. Public health recommendations should be evidence-based, simple, transparent, and realistic in the current circumstances to guide Canadians to make more informed personal protection choices in the rapidly evolving pandemic.
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spelling pubmed-78968292021-02-22 Public Health Messages About Face Masks Early in the COVID-19 Pandemic: Perceptions of and Impacts on Canadians Zhang, Ying Shan Doris Young Leslie, Heather Sharafaddin-zadeh, Yekta Noels, Kimberly Lou, Nigel Mantou J Community Health Original Paper Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, Canadians faced much ambiguity in the public health messages around face mask use. As public health messaging plays a pivotal role in the provision of directives during a health crisis, this study examines Canadians’ opinions on the early messaging they received regarding personal protection, especially around mask use, with the goal of identifying potential improvements to strengthen future health messaging. Nine online focus group interviews with 47 Canadians were conducted. These natural conversations focused on personal protective equipment (PPE) choices, mask-relevant public health information sources, and advice to Canadian authorities to improve public health messaging on mask use. Responses were imported into NVivo for thematic analysis. Four meta-themes of relevance were identified. Despite demonstrating trust in scientific evidence and public health authorities, the inconsistencies in public health messaging fostered confusion, and induced mistrust toward health professionals. Further, several information deficits were identified pertaining to the scientific efficacy, safe use, and disposal of masks. Rooted in loyalty to healthcare workers, these Canadians eschewed using medical grade masks during PPE shortages to ensure a sufficient supply for medical workers. The findings stress that consistency in public health messages should be prioritized, with necessary changes clearly justified and explained. More information should reach the public on the scientific benefits and proper use of masks. Public health recommendations should be evidence-based, simple, transparent, and realistic in the current circumstances to guide Canadians to make more informed personal protection choices in the rapidly evolving pandemic. Springer US 2021-02-20 2021 /pmc/articles/PMC7896829/ /pubmed/33611755 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10900-021-00971-8 Text en © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC part of Springer Nature 2021 This article is made available via the PMC Open Access Subset for unrestricted research re-use and secondary analysis in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for the duration of the World Health Organization (WHO) declaration of COVID-19 as a global pandemic.
spellingShingle Original Paper
Zhang, Ying Shan Doris
Young Leslie, Heather
Sharafaddin-zadeh, Yekta
Noels, Kimberly
Lou, Nigel Mantou
Public Health Messages About Face Masks Early in the COVID-19 Pandemic: Perceptions of and Impacts on Canadians
title Public Health Messages About Face Masks Early in the COVID-19 Pandemic: Perceptions of and Impacts on Canadians
title_full Public Health Messages About Face Masks Early in the COVID-19 Pandemic: Perceptions of and Impacts on Canadians
title_fullStr Public Health Messages About Face Masks Early in the COVID-19 Pandemic: Perceptions of and Impacts on Canadians
title_full_unstemmed Public Health Messages About Face Masks Early in the COVID-19 Pandemic: Perceptions of and Impacts on Canadians
title_short Public Health Messages About Face Masks Early in the COVID-19 Pandemic: Perceptions of and Impacts on Canadians
title_sort public health messages about face masks early in the covid-19 pandemic: perceptions of and impacts on canadians
topic Original Paper
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7896829/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33611755
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10900-021-00971-8
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