Social Context and Public Health Compliance: Mask wearing during the COVID-19 pandemic

As medical science worked to understand how the coronavirus is transmitted and how it can be controlled, public health professionals have been faced with the challenge of translating medical science recommendations into actions that support community health. These actions must be effective, but also adopted by individuals within the community. During the coronavirus pandemic, most people appeared to comply with guidelines for wearing face masks. On the other hand, a significant fraction of the population has consistently avoided wearing masks.

This paper explores the factors involved in an individual's decision to wear a mask, looking also at the relationships among a wider range of actions recommended as part of the CDC's COVID- 19 public health strategy. Using national panel data collected beginning in March 2020, we analyze the interaction among self-reported measures of adherence to public health recommendations, individual perceptions of the effectiveness of mask wearing as a mitigation strategy, and indicators of individual attitudes toward political aspects of coronavirus mitigation. Results from a Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) suggest that compliance with wearing a face mask is associated with other protective behaviors, such as avoiding public places (APUBLIC); believing that wearing a mask helps to keep oneself and others safe from coronavirus infection (MESAFE, OTHERSAFE); and not believing that mask wearing is a political statement and that individuals should not be forced to wear facemasks since the U.S. is a free country (POL, FREE).