• J. Korean Med. Sci. · Jul 2021

    Randomized Controlled Trial

    Respiratory Protection Effect of Ear-loop-type KF94 Masks according to the Wearing Method in COVID-19 Pandemic: a Randomized, Open-label Study.

    • Hyun Jun Yang, Hee Yoon, Soo Yeon Kang, Guntak Lee, Jong Eun Park, Taerim Kim, Se Uk Lee, Sung Yeon Hwang, Won Chul Cha, Tae Gun Shin, and Ik Joon Jo.
    • Department of Emergency Medicine, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
    • J. Korean Med. Sci. 2021 Jul 19; 36 (28): e209.

    BackgroundEar-loop-type Korean Filter 94 masks (KF94 masks, equivalent to the N95 and FFP2) are broadly used in health care settings in Korea for the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic.MethodsA prospective randomized open-label study was designed to identify differences in the fitting performance between mask wearing methods in three different types of KF94 mask with ear loops between January to March 2021. General-fitting involved wearing an ear-loop-type KF94 mask, and tight-fitting involved wearing a mask aided by a clip connecting the ear loops. Each of the 30 participants wore three types of masks according to a randomly assigned order in both methods and performed a total of six quantitative fit tests (QNFTs) according to the occupational safety and health administration protocol.ResultsAll fit factors (FFs) measured by the QNFT were significantly higher for tight-fitting method with the clip in all KF94 masks (P < 0.001). However, the total FFs were very low, with a median (interquartile range) of 6 (3-23) and 29 (9-116) for general-fitting and tight-fitting, respectively. When wearing tightly, the horizontal 3-fold type mask with adjustable ear-loop length had the highest FF, with a median of 125, and the QNFT pass rate (FF ≥ 100) increased significantly from 4 (13%) to 18 (60%).ConclusionEven with sufficient filter efficiency, ear-loop-type-KF94 masks do not provide adequate protection. However, in relatively low-risk environments, wearing a face-seal adjustable KF94 mask and tight wearing with a clip can improve respiratory protection for healthcare workers.Trial RegistrationClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04794556.© 2021 The Korean Academy of Medical Sciences.

      Pubmed     Free full text   Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…