Vol. 10, Issue 12 (2021)

Author(s):
Jyoti V Vastrad, Sakeena Naikwadi, SC Sajjanar, Shameembanu A Byadgi and Leena Patil

Abstract:
COVID-19 spreads primarily through respiratory droplets exhaled when infected people breathe, talk, cough and sneeze. The effectiveness of face masks in preventing the spread of respiratory illnesses was controversial before the covid pandemic due to a lack of relevant data to support their use. Hence, the present work designed with an objective, to study the preference of face masks among consumers during COVID-19 pandemic. The data was collected among the 360 respondents through online survey. The Google from contains demographic information of respondents, occasion and duration of wearing mask, type of face mask used, reasons for wearing a specific mask, and problems faced by the respondents while wearing a mask. Majority of respondents wear mask during driving for maximum 1 to 6 hours and it was noticed that the majority of respondents prefer re-useable cloth mask followed by surgical mask, N95 particulate respirator mask, and KN 95 disposable respirators. Respondents also revealed that prolonged use of masks causes adverse effects like sweating problem, suffocation/ breathing discomfort, fogging of spectacles, irritation, pain in the ear due to elastic loops etc. Hence, it can be concluded that, mask wearing behaviour is a key measure to suppress transmission of disease although while wearing it develops irritation but to protects our health it is essential to use during pandemic. The re-useable cloth mask is more preferable might be due to the comfort ability and ease of use.