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The tiny effects of respiratory masks on physiological, subjective, and behavioral measures under mental load in a randomized controlled trial
Since the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), face coverings are recommended to diminish person-to-person transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Some public debates concern claims regarding risks caused by wearing face masks, like, e.g., decreased blood oxygen levels and impaired cognitiv...
Autores principales: | , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Nature Publishing Group UK
2021
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8486780/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34599253 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-99100-7 |
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author | Spang, Robert P. Pieper, Kerstin |
author_facet | Spang, Robert P. Pieper, Kerstin |
author_sort | Spang, Robert P. |
collection | PubMed |
description | Since the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), face coverings are recommended to diminish person-to-person transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Some public debates concern claims regarding risks caused by wearing face masks, like, e.g., decreased blood oxygen levels and impaired cognitive capabilities. The present, pre-registered study aims to contribute clarity by delivering a direct comparison of wearing an N95 respirator and wearing no face covering. We focused on a demanding situation to show that cognitive efficacy and individual states are equivalent in both conditions. We conducted a randomized-controlled crossover trial with 44 participants. Participants performed the task while wearing an N95 FFR versus wearing none. We measured physiological (blood oxygen saturation and heart rate variability), behavioral (parameters of performance in the task), and subjective (perceived mental load) data to substantiate our assumption as broadly as possible. We analyzed data regarding both statistical equivalence and differences. All of the investigated dimensions showed statistical equivalence given our pre-registered equivalence boundaries. None of the dimensions showed a significant difference between wearing an FFR and not wearing an FFR. Trial Registration: Preregistered with the Open Science Framework: https://osf.io/c2xp5 (15/11/2020). Retrospectively registered with German Clinical Trials Register: DRKS00024806 (18/03/2021). |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8486780 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | Nature Publishing Group UK |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-84867802021-10-04 The tiny effects of respiratory masks on physiological, subjective, and behavioral measures under mental load in a randomized controlled trial Spang, Robert P. Pieper, Kerstin Sci Rep Article Since the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), face coverings are recommended to diminish person-to-person transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Some public debates concern claims regarding risks caused by wearing face masks, like, e.g., decreased blood oxygen levels and impaired cognitive capabilities. The present, pre-registered study aims to contribute clarity by delivering a direct comparison of wearing an N95 respirator and wearing no face covering. We focused on a demanding situation to show that cognitive efficacy and individual states are equivalent in both conditions. We conducted a randomized-controlled crossover trial with 44 participants. Participants performed the task while wearing an N95 FFR versus wearing none. We measured physiological (blood oxygen saturation and heart rate variability), behavioral (parameters of performance in the task), and subjective (perceived mental load) data to substantiate our assumption as broadly as possible. We analyzed data regarding both statistical equivalence and differences. All of the investigated dimensions showed statistical equivalence given our pre-registered equivalence boundaries. None of the dimensions showed a significant difference between wearing an FFR and not wearing an FFR. Trial Registration: Preregistered with the Open Science Framework: https://osf.io/c2xp5 (15/11/2020). Retrospectively registered with German Clinical Trials Register: DRKS00024806 (18/03/2021). Nature Publishing Group UK 2021-10-01 /pmc/articles/PMC8486780/ /pubmed/34599253 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-99100-7 Text en © The Author(s) 2021 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . |
spellingShingle | Article Spang, Robert P. Pieper, Kerstin The tiny effects of respiratory masks on physiological, subjective, and behavioral measures under mental load in a randomized controlled trial |
title | The tiny effects of respiratory masks on physiological, subjective, and behavioral measures under mental load in a randomized controlled trial |
title_full | The tiny effects of respiratory masks on physiological, subjective, and behavioral measures under mental load in a randomized controlled trial |
title_fullStr | The tiny effects of respiratory masks on physiological, subjective, and behavioral measures under mental load in a randomized controlled trial |
title_full_unstemmed | The tiny effects of respiratory masks on physiological, subjective, and behavioral measures under mental load in a randomized controlled trial |
title_short | The tiny effects of respiratory masks on physiological, subjective, and behavioral measures under mental load in a randomized controlled trial |
title_sort | tiny effects of respiratory masks on physiological, subjective, and behavioral measures under mental load in a randomized controlled trial |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8486780/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34599253 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-99100-7 |
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