Adverse Effects of the Long-term use of an N95 Respirator in Healthcare Workers.

Abstract

Objectives: Healthcare workers must take stringent infection control measures against coronavirus disease. Previous reports have indicated that N95 respirators cause fatigue, discomfort, and physical symptoms, such as headaches. We aimed to comparatively analyze the effect of the use of surgical and N95 respirators for long hours on the performance of healthcare workers. This is the first study to validate the effect of wearing N95 respirators on work efficiency.

Materials and methods: This study was conducted from April 2021 to October 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan. Healthy healthcare workers at an emergency department were subjected to a performance task program comprising four tasks conducted before and after wearing a surgical mask/N95 respirator for at least 4 h, and the results were compared.

Results: The study included 17 (male, 8 [47.1%]) healthcare workers. The age ranged from 22 to 32 (mean, 26.6) years. For each task, the rate of change in the percentage of correct responses, rate of decline in reaction time, and rate of decline in reaction time for correct responses were calculated before and after wearing the two types of masks. There was no statistically significant difference in the rate of decline in reaction time between the masks for all tasks. However, there was a trend toward a high rate of decline in the alphanumeric detection task.

Conclusions: Using an N95 respirator for 4 h continuously did not adversely affect work efficiency. Although prolonged work under conditions of discomfort should be avoided, it is unlikely that N95 respirators will adversely affect the performance of healthcare workers.