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Do medical staffs need to wear masks? - Arguments based on best evidence

Published on Mar. 19, 2020Total Views: 12712 timesTotal Downloads: 3224 timesDownloadMobile

Author: Yun-Yun WANG 1, 2 Ying-Juan CAO 3 Rong FU 4 Kan-Da FU 5 Zhong-Kai FAN 6 Wei-Jie GAO 7 Ying-Hui JIN 1, 2 Yu-Feng LIU 8 Zhi MAO 9 Bin PEI 10 Ping RONG 11 Yue-Xian SHI 12 Li-Ming TAN 13 Fen WANG 14 Ying WANG 15 Da-Guo XU 16 Qing-An XU 17, 18 Wen-Zhong XIE 19 Zheng XIAO 20 Jian YANG 21, 22 Qi-Wen YANG 23 Zhi-Ping YANG 24 Bo ZHOU 25 Xiao-Wen ZHAI 26 Yun ZHANG 27 Yan-Jun ZHONG 28 Xiao-Ping ZHU 29 Xing-Huan WANG 1, 2* Jin GU 30*

Affiliation: 1. Center for Evidence-Based and Translational Medicine, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan 430071, China 2. Center for Evidence-Based and Translational Medicine, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430071, China 3. Nursing Department, Qilu Hospital of Shandong University, Jinan 250012, China 4. Department of Internal Medicine, Gulou Hospital Affiliated to Medical College of Nanjing University, Nanjing 210008, China 5. Huaihe Hospital of Henan University, Kaifeng 475000, Henan Province, China 6. Department of Orthopedics, First Affiliated Hospital of Jinzhou Medical College, Jinzhou 121001, Liaoning Prov-ince, China 7. School of Nursing, Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin 301617, China 8. Department of Paediatric Internal Medicine, the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450052, China 9. Department of Critical Medicine, the First Medical Center of Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing 100853, China 10. Evidence-Based Medicine Center, the first People’ s Hospital of Xiangyang, Hubei University of Medicine, Xiang-yang 442000, Hubei Province, China 11. Department of Pediatrics, First Affiliated Hospital of Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin 300381, China 12. School of Nursing, Peking University, Beijing 100191, China 13. The Second People's Hospital of Huaihua, Huaihua 418200, Hunan Province, China 14. Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, First Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University, Nanchang 330006, China 15. Department of pharmacy, China Japan Union Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun 130033, China 16. Department of Quality Management, Zhujiang Hospital Affiliated to South Medical University, Guangzhou 510282, China 17. Department of Stomatology, School of Medicine, Jianghan University, Wuhan 430056, China 18. Stomatological Hospital, Jianghan University, Wuhan 430022, China 19. Kaifeng Instituty of Medical Science, Kaifeng 475000, Henan Province, China 20. Evidence-Based Medicine Center, Affiliated Hospital of Zunyi Medical University, Zunyi 536000, Guizhou Province, China 21. Department of Cardiology, The People's Hospital of China Three Gorges University, Yichang 443000, Hubei Province, China 22. Institute of Evidence-based and Translational Medicine, China Three Gorges University, Yichang 443003, Hubei Province, China 23. Department of Clinical Laboratory, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Beijing 100730, China 24. Xijing Hospital of Digestive Diseases, Air Force Medical University, Xi'an 710032, China 25. Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Evidence-Based Medicine, The First Affiliated Hospital of China Medi-cal University, Shenyang 110001, China 26. Department of Hematology, Children's Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai 201102, China 27. Stomatological Hospital of Lanzhou City, Lanzhou 730000, China 28. Department of Intensive Care Unit, Xiangya Second Hospital, Central South University, Changsha 410011, China 29. Hospital Quality and Safety Management Office, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan 430071, China 30. Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, Peking University Shougang Hospital, Beijing 100043, China

Keywords: Medical Institution Medical Worker Mask Best Evidence Clinical Evidence

DOI: 10.12173/j.issn.1004-5511.2020.02.09

Reference: Wang YY, Cao YJ, Fu R, Fu KD, Fan ZK, Gao WJ, Jin YH, Liu YF, Mao Z, Pei B, Rong P, Shi YX, Tan LM, Wang F, Wang Y, Xu DG, Xu AQ, Xie WZ, Xiao Z, Yang J, Yang QW, Yang ZP, Zhou B, Zhai XW, Zhang Y, Zhong YJ, Zhu XP, Wang XH, Gu J. Do medical staffs need to wear masks? - Arguments based on best evidence[J].Yixue Xinzhi Zazhi, 2020, 30(2): 124-138. DOI: 10.12173/j.issn.1004-5511.2020.02.09.[Article in Chinese]

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Abstract

Objective  whether the medical staff need to wear masks or not is still controversial, the aim of this study is to evaluate and summarize the best evidence relevant to this topic in order to provide sugges-tions for the medical staff. 

Methods  PubMed, Cochrane Library, web of science, CINAHL, CNKI, Wan-fang, VIP, CBM, guideline databases and related professional societies were systematically searched from the inception of the database to 27 October 2019 in order to relevant guidelines, expert consensus and systematic reviews. The researchers assessed the quality of best evidence included using international recognized quality evaluation tools, and summarized the recommendations on whether the medical staff need to wear masks or not. 

Results  35 documents were included, including 6 guidelines, 27 expert consensus, 2 systematic reviews, and the overall quality of the evidence was higher. According to the ev-idence, masks were recommended as one of the personal protective measures, and wearing masks has obvious advantages in the prevention of nosocomial infection compared with the nonuse of respiratory protective equipment. The evidence also put forward a number of recommendations based on different clinical scenarios workplace such as operation area, laboratory area, obstetrics. 

Conclusion  Wearing masks is well recognized by the existing best evidence to prevent nosocomial infection. However, the quality of the evidence still has certain limitations. The medical staff should use masks reasonably consid-ering their experience, clinical settings, or other factors. 

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References

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