Barriers Related to Mask Wearing in African American Neighborhood Businesses

African Americans and people of color have been disproportionately affected by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. As the second wave of the virus raged across the nation, there was a renewed effort to increase adherence to social distancing and mask-wearing guidelines. A community-based study led by members of the local National Black Nurses Association (NBNA) was conducted in a Midwest metropolitan city to identify barriers to mask-wearing experienced by business owners and employees in predominantly African American neighborhoods. Neighborhood business owners and their employees are essential to the life of a community as they provide needed goods and services from convenient neighborhood locations. Thus, attitudes and behaviors exhibited by business owners, supervisors, and other employees are important to combat COVID-19 in underserved communities. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 39 business owners or supervising employees. Simple content analysis was used to identify codes and themes from the narrative data. Responses to the question ‘What can make mask-wearing easier for your business and businesses in the neighborhood?’ yielded three themes. Themes included ‘a sense of community’, the ‘need for external support’, and ‘internal leadership’. These themes can be used to develop interventions to improve mask-wearing behaviors, support business owners and their customers, and lower the spread of COVID-19 in high-risk communities.