Affiliations 

  • 1 University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
  • 2 Xiamen University Malaysia, Sunsuria City, Sepang, Selangor, Malaysia
  • 3 University of Dundee, Dundee, Scotland, United Kingdom
  • 4 Tongji University, Shanghai, China
  • 5 Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
Am J Trop Med Hyg, 2021 08 09;105(6):1516-1518.
PMID: 34370702 DOI: 10.4269/ajtmh.21-0566

Abstract

Wearing a face mask has been a key approach to contain or slow down the spread of COVID-19 in the ongoing pandemic. However, there is huge heterogeneity among individuals in their willingness to wear face masks during an epidemic. This research aims to investigate the individual heterogeneity to wear face masks and its associated predictors during the COVID-19 pandemic when mask-wearing was not mandatory. Based on a survey of 708 Malaysian adults and a multivariate least-squares fitting analysis, the results reveal a significant variance among individuals in wearing masks, as 34% of the individual adults did not always wear masks in public places. Female individuals, individuals who wash their hands more frequently, and those who reported more availability of personal protective equipment were more likely to practice mask-wearing. The identification of less-compliant groups of mask wearing has critical implications by enabling more specific health communication campaigns.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.