ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Wearing face masks in public is recommended under certain circumstances in order to prevent infectious diseases transmitted through droplets. AIM: The objective was to compile all German and English research results from peer-reviewed journal articles using a sensitive literature search on the effects of mask-wearing for preventing infectious diseases on the psychosocial development of children and adolescents. METHODS: A systematic review was conducted considering different study designs (search period up until 12 July 2021). The risk of bias in the studies was determined using a risk of bias procedure. A descriptive-narrative synthesis of the results was performed. RESULTS: Thirteen studies were included, and the overall risk of bias was estimated to be high in all primary studies. There are some indications from the included surveys that children, adolescents, and their teachers in (pre)schools perceived facial expression processing as impaired due to mask wearing, which were confirmed by several experimental studies. Two studies reported psychological symptoms like anxiety and stress as well as concentration and learning problems due to wearing a mask during the COVID-19 pandemic. One survey study during the 2002/2003 SARS pandemic examined oral examination performance in English as a foreign language and showed no difference between the "mask" and "no mask" conditions. DISCUSSION: Only little evidence can be derived on the effects of wearing mouth-nose protection on different developmental areas of children and adolescents based on the small number of studies. There is a lack of research data regarding the following outcomes: psychological development, language development, emotional development, social behavior, school success, and participation. Further qualitative studies and epidemiological studies are required.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Communicable Diseases , Adolescent , Child , Child, Preschool , Germany , Humans , Masks , Pandemics , SARS-CoV-2ABSTRACT
With the declaration of a pandemic situation of national significance by the German Bundestag, the Federal Centre for Health Education (BZgA) is fulfilling its task of providing information for understanding the pandemic situation and implementing the necessary protective measures in a clear manner throughout Germany within the framework of the adapted National Pandemic Plan COVID-19. The BZgA targets its information according to the needs of specific groups and actively involves multipliers.In order to incorporate the perspectives of the population as well as those of prevention and health promotion professionals into the services developed by the BZgA, given the particularly initial low level of knowledge in the population, various methods and data sources were used: the COVID-19 Snapshot Monitoring (COSMO) population survey, the monitoring of citizens' enquiries via telephone and email to the BZgA, surveys of counselling professionals from nationwide telephone and online counselling centres, surveys of health professionals in early help (NZFH) and interdisciplinary practice expert hearings. Beyond providing pure information, practical and everyday offers should be developed and provided according to WHO guidelines and evidence-based criteria of effective communication in order to support the competences for a gradual adaptation to a "new normality".The paper describes the data-based and evidence-informed development process of communication content and offers, their dissemination via existing websites and channels for other topics as well as their integration into the new online platform www.zusammengegencorona.de . This demonstrates how demand-driven and target group-specific communication offers can be implemented beyond the classic and proven campaign appearance.