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High rates of observed face mask use at Colorado universities align with students’ opinions about masking and support the safety and viability of in-person higher education during the COVID-19 pandemic

BACKGROUND: Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, colleges and universities have focused on creating policies, such as mask mandates, to minimize COVID-19 transmission both on their campuses and in the surrounding community. Adherence to and opinions about these policies remain largely unknown....

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Autores principales: Clark, Kevin C., Bailey, Maximilian J., Wasshuber, Stefan, Huntley, Raissa, Bjorkman, Kristen K., Bauer, Leisha Conners, Paige, Camille L., Sawyer, Sara L., Czarnik, Michaila, Riggs, Margaret A., Gutilla, Margaret J., Alderete, Tanya L.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9910780/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36759815
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-023-15211-y
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author Clark, Kevin C.
Bailey, Maximilian J.
Wasshuber, Stefan
Huntley, Raissa
Bjorkman, Kristen K.
Bauer, Leisha Conners
Paige, Camille L.
Sawyer, Sara L.
Czarnik, Michaila
Riggs, Margaret A.
Gutilla, Margaret J.
Alderete, Tanya L.
author_facet Clark, Kevin C.
Bailey, Maximilian J.
Wasshuber, Stefan
Huntley, Raissa
Bjorkman, Kristen K.
Bauer, Leisha Conners
Paige, Camille L.
Sawyer, Sara L.
Czarnik, Michaila
Riggs, Margaret A.
Gutilla, Margaret J.
Alderete, Tanya L.
author_sort Clark, Kevin C.
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, colleges and universities have focused on creating policies, such as mask mandates, to minimize COVID-19 transmission both on their campuses and in the surrounding community. Adherence to and opinions about these policies remain largely unknown. METHODS: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) developed a cross-sectional study, the Mask Adherence and Surveillance at Colleges and Universities Project (MASCUP!), to objectively and inconspicuously measure rates of mask use at institutes of higher education via direct observation. From February 15 through April 11, 2021 the University of Colorado Boulder (CU, n = 2,808 observations) and Colorado State University Fort Collins (CSU, n = 3,225 observations) participated in MASCUP! along with 52 other institutes of higher education (n = 100,353 observations) spanning 21 states and the District of Columbia. Mask use was mandatory at both Colorado universities and student surveys were administered to assess student beliefs and attitudes. RESULTS: We found that 91.7%, 93.4%, and 90.8% of persons observed at indoor locations on campus wore a mask correctly at University of Colorado, Colorado State University, and across the 52 other schools, respectively. Student responses to questions about masking were in line with these observed rates of mask use where 92.9% of respondents at CU and 89.8% at CSU believe that wearing masks can protect the health of others. Both Colorado universities saw their largest surges in COVID-19 cases in the fall of 2020, with markedly lower case counts during the mask observation window in the spring of 2021. CONCLUSION: High levels of mask use at Colorado’s two largest campuses aligned with rates observed at other institutes across the country. These high rates of use, coupled with positive student attitudes about mask use, demonstrate that masks were widely accepted and may have contributed to reduced COVID-19 case counts. This study supports an emerging body of literature substantiating masks as an effective, low-cost measure to reduce disease transmission and establishes masking (with proper education and promotion) as a viable tactic to reduce respiratory disease transmission on college campuses. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12889-023-15211-y.
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spelling pubmed-99107802023-02-10 High rates of observed face mask use at Colorado universities align with students’ opinions about masking and support the safety and viability of in-person higher education during the COVID-19 pandemic Clark, Kevin C. Bailey, Maximilian J. Wasshuber, Stefan Huntley, Raissa Bjorkman, Kristen K. Bauer, Leisha Conners Paige, Camille L. Sawyer, Sara L. Czarnik, Michaila Riggs, Margaret A. Gutilla, Margaret J. Alderete, Tanya L. BMC Public Health Research BACKGROUND: Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, colleges and universities have focused on creating policies, such as mask mandates, to minimize COVID-19 transmission both on their campuses and in the surrounding community. Adherence to and opinions about these policies remain largely unknown. METHODS: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) developed a cross-sectional study, the Mask Adherence and Surveillance at Colleges and Universities Project (MASCUP!), to objectively and inconspicuously measure rates of mask use at institutes of higher education via direct observation. From February 15 through April 11, 2021 the University of Colorado Boulder (CU, n = 2,808 observations) and Colorado State University Fort Collins (CSU, n = 3,225 observations) participated in MASCUP! along with 52 other institutes of higher education (n = 100,353 observations) spanning 21 states and the District of Columbia. Mask use was mandatory at both Colorado universities and student surveys were administered to assess student beliefs and attitudes. RESULTS: We found that 91.7%, 93.4%, and 90.8% of persons observed at indoor locations on campus wore a mask correctly at University of Colorado, Colorado State University, and across the 52 other schools, respectively. Student responses to questions about masking were in line with these observed rates of mask use where 92.9% of respondents at CU and 89.8% at CSU believe that wearing masks can protect the health of others. Both Colorado universities saw their largest surges in COVID-19 cases in the fall of 2020, with markedly lower case counts during the mask observation window in the spring of 2021. CONCLUSION: High levels of mask use at Colorado’s two largest campuses aligned with rates observed at other institutes across the country. These high rates of use, coupled with positive student attitudes about mask use, demonstrate that masks were widely accepted and may have contributed to reduced COVID-19 case counts. This study supports an emerging body of literature substantiating masks as an effective, low-cost measure to reduce disease transmission and establishes masking (with proper education and promotion) as a viable tactic to reduce respiratory disease transmission on college campuses. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12889-023-15211-y. BioMed Central 2023-02-09 /pmc/articles/PMC9910780/ /pubmed/36759815 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-023-15211-y Text en © The Author(s) 2023 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open AccessThis 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/) . The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) ) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.
spellingShingle Research
Clark, Kevin C.
Bailey, Maximilian J.
Wasshuber, Stefan
Huntley, Raissa
Bjorkman, Kristen K.
Bauer, Leisha Conners
Paige, Camille L.
Sawyer, Sara L.
Czarnik, Michaila
Riggs, Margaret A.
Gutilla, Margaret J.
Alderete, Tanya L.
High rates of observed face mask use at Colorado universities align with students’ opinions about masking and support the safety and viability of in-person higher education during the COVID-19 pandemic
title High rates of observed face mask use at Colorado universities align with students’ opinions about masking and support the safety and viability of in-person higher education during the COVID-19 pandemic
title_full High rates of observed face mask use at Colorado universities align with students’ opinions about masking and support the safety and viability of in-person higher education during the COVID-19 pandemic
title_fullStr High rates of observed face mask use at Colorado universities align with students’ opinions about masking and support the safety and viability of in-person higher education during the COVID-19 pandemic
title_full_unstemmed High rates of observed face mask use at Colorado universities align with students’ opinions about masking and support the safety and viability of in-person higher education during the COVID-19 pandemic
title_short High rates of observed face mask use at Colorado universities align with students’ opinions about masking and support the safety and viability of in-person higher education during the COVID-19 pandemic
title_sort high rates of observed face mask use at colorado universities align with students’ opinions about masking and support the safety and viability of in-person higher education during the covid-19 pandemic
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9910780/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36759815
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-023-15211-y
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