Health sciences students’ perception of the communicative impacts of face coverings during the COVID-19 pandemic at a South African University (original) (raw)
Related papers
2021
As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, many states and cities enacted mask mandates requiring masks be worn indoors. As a result, those universities opting to open their doors to in person learning in the 2020-2021 academic year possibly required students to wear masks in the classroom. This study explores the impact of mask wearing on undergraduate speech students who gave presentations or speeches during the pandemic and the implications for communication centers serving those students. Specifically, participants were asked about their self-perceived confidence and satisfaction with the masked presentation as well as whether they changed the content or delivery due to the mask. Most students indicated little to no impact on their confidence or satisfaction as a result of wearing a mask. However, some participants still modified the content of their presentations and a majority indicated they made modifications to their delivery. These results suggests communication centers should f...
JAMA Network Open
IMPORTANCE Adoption of mask wearing in response to the COVID-19 pandemic alters daily communication. OBJECTIVE To assess communication barriers associated with mask wearing in patient-clinician interactions and individuals who are deaf and hard of hearing. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS This pilot cross-sectional survey study included the general population, health care workers, and health care workers who are deaf or hard of hearing in the United States. Volunteers were sampled via an opt-in survey panel and nonrandomized convenience sampling. The general population survey was conducted between January 5 and January 8, 2021. The health care worker surveys were conducted between December 3, 2020, and January 3, 2021. Respondents viewed 2 short videos of a study author wearing both a standard and transparent N95 mask and answered questions regarding mask use, communication, preference, and fit. Surveys took 15 to 20 minutes to complete. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES Participants' perceptions were assessed surrounding the use of both mask types related to communication and the ability to express emotions. RESULTS The national survey consisted of 1000 participants (mean [SD] age, 48.7 [18.5] years; 496 [49.6%] women) with a response rate of 92.25%. The survey of general health care workers consisted of 123 participants (mean [SD] age, 49.5 [9.0] years; 84 [68.3%] women), with a response rate of 11.14%. The survey of health care workers who are deaf or hard of hearing consisted of 45 participants (mean [SD] age, 54.5 [9.0] years; 30 [66.7%] women) with a response rate of 23.95%. After viewing a video demonstrating a study author wearing a transparent N95 mask, 781 (78.1%) in the general population, 109 general health care workers (88.6%), and 38 health care workers who are deaf or hard of hearing (84.4%) were able to identify the emotion being expressed, in contrast with 201 (20.1%), 25 (20.5%), and 11 (24.4%) for the standard opaque N95 mask. In the general population, 450 (45.0%) felt positively about interacting with a health care worker wearing a transparent mask; 76 general health care workers (61.8%) and 37 health care workers who are deaf or hard of hearing (82.2%) felt positively about wearing a transparent mask to communicate with patients. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE The findings of this study suggest that transparent masks could help improve communication during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly for individuals who are deaf and hard of hearing.
Effects on communication due to face mask use: an integrative review
Revista Brasileira de Enfermagem
Objectives: to integrate evidence from studies on auditory perceptual and speech production effects in communication situations with face mask use. Methods: an integrative literature review, in MEDLINE, Cochrane Library and Embase databases. The guiding question was: what effects on communication (perceptual-auditory and speech production) occur with face mask use? Results: searches in electronic databases resulted in 1,478 studies and filtering resulted in 29 final studies. Conclusions: mask use has effects on communication, both in perception and speech production, factors that are also related to quality of life, stress and socio-emotional factors. These data can impact on indicators and alerts in favor of adopting strategies to manage mask use, involving speech production and perception when wearing a mask in health services.
Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications, 2022
The objective was to document the influence of face mask use by other people on communication experiences, participation in activities, and quality of life. Australian adults (n = 665) completed an online survey; 90.8% resided in a state with mandatory mask use outside the home and 44.1% self-reported hearing difficulties. Mask use was reported as negatively affecting communication quality in the community (90.2%) and workplace (91.8%), and with household members (59.1%), including an increased requirement for clarification and repetition, increased difficulty communicating, and decreased understanding. Masks influenced feelings when communicating in the community (74.1%) and workplace (76.7%), and with household members (43.6%), including increased fatigue and frustration, and decreased connection to others. Masks influenced the time spent communicating in the community (68.8%) and workplace (67.9%), and with household members (42.3%), including a decrease in the number of individuals communicated with, and the time spent communicating with each individual. Masks influenced participation in activities in the community (50.9%) and workplace (59.7%), and with household members (41.3%), including reduced participation in health-related activities, shopping, and socialising. Influences on quality of life included reduced physical and mental health, including increased loneliness. Female gender and greater self-reported hearing difficulties were significantly associated with increased influence of mask use. The wide-ranging influences of face mask use have implications for physical health and mental health, including social connectedness, and for employers and the economy. As an important measure for combatting disease spread, the negative impacts of mask use must be considered during policy formulation, and appropriate mitigating measures, such as educational campaigns, enacted.
MASKS IN PANDEMIC AND THE COURAGE OF HEALTH PROFESSIONAL’S IN NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION
Academia Letters, 2021
The pandemic crisis brought the globalization of mask use. Habits that seemed confined to eastern countries and some Arab countries have spread across the globe since the beginning of 2019 with coverage of almost the entire face (chin, mouth, and nose). In this process, thousands of health professionals had to cover part of their faces with protective masks. Considering that in Portugal there are 61,000 nurses (Order of Nurses, 2021) and 56200 doctors (Order of Physicians, 2021), not counting the other health professionals (Therapeutic professions) and those who support them every day (technical assistants) and for about a year, more than 100,000health professionals wear masks in Portugal continuously in their profession. Mheidly, Mohamad, Fares et al., (2020) stress that protective measures, such as social distancing and face masks, are essential to mitigate efforts against the virus, but present challenges in daily face-to-face communication, with a change in the communication paradigm. According to these researchers (Mheidly et al., 2020),"Face masks mainly muffle sounds and cover facial expressions that facilitate understanding during live communication". For its part, Carr (2020) argues that "through face masks, direct eye contact can still establish intent, clarity, connection, and compassion." (p. 345). In an integrative view of the verbal and nonverbal components of communication, DiMatteo et al.(2011) confirm that communication can be verbal, supported by words, and not verbal, which uses gestures, posture, tone of voice, proximity, among other elements of paralanguage (p.39). Knap, Hall and Horgan (2014) even mention that it is "practically impossible to separate verbal and nonverbal behavior into two separate and distinct categories"(p.8).
The consequences of COVID-19 on social interactions: an online study on face covering
Nature Scientific Reports, 2021
The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically changed the nature of our social interactions. In order to understand how protective equipment and distancing measures influence the ability to comprehend others' emotions and, thus, to effectively interact with others, we carried out an online study across the Italian population during the first pandemic peak. Participants were shown static facial expressions (Angry, Happy and Neutral) covered by a sanitary mask or by a scarf. They were asked to evaluate the expressed emotions as well as to assess the degree to which one would adopt physical and social distancing measures for each stimulus. Results demonstrate that, despite the covering of the lower-face, participants correctly recognized the facial expressions of emotions with a polarizing effect on emotional valence ratings found in females. Noticeably, while females' ratings for physical and social distancing were driven by the emotional content of the stimuli, males were influenced by the "covered" condition. The results also show the impact of the pandemic on anxiety and fear experienced by participants. Taken together, our results offer novel insights on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on social interactions, providing a deeper understanding of the way people react to different kinds of protective face covering. Facial expressions are extremely important for comprehending people's emotions and intentions. Specifically, several studies have investigated facial features crucial to convey and correctly recognize specific emotions. As a result, it has been demonstrated that both the upper (particularly the eyes) and lower (particularly the mouth) face are essential for conveying and decoding emotional facial expressions. Precisely, the eyes and mouth represent crucial cues for detecting angry and happy expressions, respectively 1-7. Previous studies have investigated the effect of covered faces on emotion perception, in particular with regard to Islamic veils or headdresses 8-10. As expected, their results showed that when only the upper part of the face is visible (i.e., the eyes), participants perceive and recognize negative emotions (i.e., anger and fear) better than positive (i.e., happiness) ones. Furthermore , some studies also demonstrated that Islamic contextual cues bias perception toward more intense negative emotions 9,10 , showing that the interaction between contextual cues and the covering of facial features influences emotion recognition. Recently, the COVID-19 pandemic 11 has dramatically changed the nature of our social interactions. This is true not only of the lockdown initiated in Italy in March 2020 (when the Italian government announced restrictions on all non-essential activities, with only work and health-related travel being authorized), but also of the present days as we still regard other people as possible sources of infection. For the foreseeable future, it will be necessary to wear sanitary masks covering the lower face (i.e., mouth and nose) and do social distancing when interacting with others. How do these unprecedented conditions influence the way we perceive and comprehend other people's emotions? Addressing this question is of utmost importance to understand the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on our ability to effectively entertain social interactions with others. In the last months, many scholars have outlined the social and emotional consequences of COVID-19 on peo-ple's well-being 12-14 , also discussing what social and behavioral science can do to support pandemic response, thus calling for a timely mobilization of the scientific community to produce research to "directly inform individual and collective behaviour in response to the pandemic" 15. Some researchers responded to the call by investigating crucial aspects that can influence and promote people' intention to adhere to distancing measures and to wear sanitary masks (e.g., content and language of messages and appeals) 16-19. Interestingly, an online study conducted OPEN
Journal of Infectious Diseases and Epidemiology, 2021
Background: The wearing of facemask in public places has been adopted as source control measure in the prevention and control of Covid-19 worldwide. In Nigeria, its use in public places has been made compulsory and defaulters are liable to sanctions. However, compliance still remains poor especially among youths, hence the need to assess knowledge of Covid-19 and compliance with the use of face mask among University students. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study among 400 undergraduates of Rivers State University, Port Harcourt who were selected through multistage sampling technique and gave written informed consent. Information gathered were on their socio-demography, knowledge on Covid-19, wearing of facemask and reasons for not as well as adherence to protocols for wearing and removing facemask. Data was analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics 22 and results were presented in frequency tables. Results: Majority of the respondents were aged 15-24 years (n = 258, 64.5%) and single (n = 340; 85%). Respondents who have very good knowledge on Covid-19 were 396 (99%), those who owned facemask were 362 (90.5%) mainly surgical mask (n = 195, 53.9%). Only 36 (10.6%) of them use it at all times in public. Respondents who either worn or removed their facemask appropriately were 60 (17.6%) and 80 (23.8%) respectively. Most common reasons for non-use of facemask were difficulties in breathing (n = 94; 25.8%) and communicating (n = 84; 23.1%) and discomfort (n = 81; 22.3%). Only 16 (4.4%) of them felt they looked ugly when wearing it. Conclusion: Although knowledge on Covid-19 is high among undergraduates in Rivers State, the effective use of facemask among youths is still very low. Recommendation: Risk communication messages by Infection Prevention and Control team should also include education on how to wear and remove facemask appropriately.
The effect of wearing face masks on voice and intelligibility of speech during the COVID-19 pandemic
The Egyptian Journal of Otolaryngology
Background The study aims at evaluating the effect of wearing face masks on voice and intelligibility of speech in Egyptian working individuals during the COVID-19 pandemic to identify if there are any adverse effects of wearing face masks in the working environment. Materials and methods A cross-section analytical study was conducted on 153 participants. Personal data and data about the nature of their workplaces were collected. The evaluation included a subjective assessment of voice and intelligibility of speech using a specifically designed questionnaire addressing self-perception of voice fatigue, speech unintelligibility, received auditory feedback and breathing difficulty, and objective voice assessment by Computerized Speech Lab, while objective speech unintelligibility assessment by the Arabic Speech Intelligibility Test. Results The study revealed poor workplace acoustics and increased their self-perception of voice fatigue, speech unintelligibility, auditory feedback, and...
Applied Sciences, 2021
Aiming at shedding light on the implications the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the students’ social and personal lives, this study has focused on the verbal and non-verbal communication and on the surveyees’ personal lives during the pandemic as well as on the perspective of changing their communication behaviors after the pandemic. The 409 respondents, students at Politehnica University of Timisoara, took part in a survey, conducted between 1 April and 30 May 2021, that was posted on isondaje.ro, a Romanian online survey platform. The research has suggested the following results: the adjustment of the verbal communication by speaking in a more articulated manner or more loudly; the overuse of the upper part of the face to compensate for the concealed parts of the face due to face mask wearing; the analysis of the factors underlying the respondents’ actions, i.e., relational attitudes, various greeting forms, various non-verbal reactions, which are aspects that are likely to change e...