Is Face and Mask Touching a Real Struggle During the COVID-19 Pandemic? A Prospective Study Among Medical Students

Abstract

There are limited data in the literature on the frequency of face- and mask-touching behavior as a potential vector for the self-inoculation and transmission of the novel coronavirus. In this prospective study, we assessed the facial touching behavior of 204 medical students. One hundred thirty-four subjects (65.68%) during the 15-min observation at least once touched the area of the mask (38.23%), eyes (38.23%), or other parts of the facial zone (49.02%). The mean number of touches was 11.98 ± 16.33 per hour. The results of our study reveal that there is no significant association between mask wearing and gender; however, there might be a tendency for people with eyeglasses to touch the area near the eyes more often.