 |
Author Jaxon Lloyd, Neil Mansfield |
| Abstract Within 12 months, the usage of Face Masks (FM) has shifted from being specifically used by some specialists, to being the norm for most of the world’s population. The design of FM has changed as they have become more common. Compliance with wearing any PPE (personal protective equipment) is closely associated with comfort, whether it be FM, hearing protection, body armour, etc. It is now normal for passengers to travel for long periods of time wearing FM, but these are anecdotally considered uncomfortable but there is little independent research helping to understand what makes for a comfortable, or uncomfortable, mask. This is of particular concern in the airline industry. This paper reports a study that assesses the comfort of Face Mask/Face coverings (FM/FC) through eliciting the opinions of FM users, with a closer look at design features. An online questionnaire survey of the public (n=202) was conducted covering topics such as experience with FM, FM irritation, comfort perception of a range of FMs. Priming questions on perception of comfort in travel environments were included to provide context.. The highest factor of irritation in surgical FM was associated with the ear loops, where for a short period (44%) and long period (50%) achieved the highest percentage of votes in both conditions. For FM, the fabric FM performed best across the board with a key result of showing a statistical significance (p |