The Study’s Summary
A new study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine raises the possibility that medical masks are as effective as N95 respirators. In protecting healthcare workers (HCWs) exposed to COVID-19 patients in specific settings, experts advise against drawing any firm conclusions from the findings (Smallwood et al., 2022). While the CDC in the United States recommends N95s, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that medical masks be always worn when caring for patients with COVID-19 (Van Beusekom, 2022). The study aimed to bring attention to the debate between face masks and N95 respirators among healthcare professionals.
The Sample Size and the Level of Confidence
There is a confidence interval, and the sample size utilized to generate it in this study. From May 4, 2020, to March 29, 2022, researchers from McMaster University in Canada oversaw a randomized trial to monitor COVID-19 infections among 1,009 HCWs providing direct care to sick patients at 29 hospitals in Canada, Israel, Pakistan, and Egypt. This study is the first randomized clinical trial to compare the efficacy of medical masks and N95 respirators in protecting healthcare workers against contracting COVID-19. The article agreed with Smith et al. (2020) that healthcare workers (HCWs) wore either a medical mask or a fit-tested N95 filtering facepiece respirator (FFR) for ten weeks. At a 95% confidence interval, RT-PCR confirmed COVID-19 infection in 52 of 497 (10.46%) HCWs in the medical mask group and 47 of 507 (9.27%) in the N95 group.
The Meaning of Confidence Interval Means in the Context of The News Article
Based on statistical theory, scientific publications regularly provide confidence intervals to reflect the accuracy or reliability of research findings. For healthcare professionals, masks versus N95 respirators are an example of a study that could benefit from using a confidence interval (Van Beusekom, 2022). Confidence intervals show a degree of uncertainty, variations in self-reported adherence and baseline SARS-CoV-2 antibody status, and variations in vaccination coverage and dominant circulating variants across countries.
References
Smallwood, N., Harrex, W., Rees, M., Willis, K., & Bennett, C. M. (2022). COVID‐19 infection and the broader impacts of the pandemic on healthcare workers. Respirology, 27(6), 411-426. Web.
Smith, P. B., Agostini, G., & Mitchell, J. C. (2020). A scoping review of surgical masks and N95 filtering facepiece respirators: Learning from the past to guide the future of dentistry. Safety Science, 131. Web.
Van Beusekom, M. (2022). Study on masks vs. N95 respirators for Health Workers Spurs concerns. CIDRAP. Web.