The use of the facial mask by the person with disease symptoms infectocontagious respiratory: the prevention of dissemination in public places

• Grant number: 20/05212-0
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: August 01, 2020
• End date: January 31, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Collective Health - Public Health
• Principal Investigator: Rosa Yuka Sato Chubaci
• Grantee: Rosa Yuka Sato Chubaci
• Host Institution: Escola de Artes, Ciências e Humanidades (EACH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: Beatriz Aparecida Ozello Gutierrez
• Associated scholarship(s): 20/12907-4 - The use of the facial mask by the person with disease symptoms infectocontagious respiratory: the prevention of dissemination in public places, BP.TT; 20/12911-1 - The use of the facial mask by the person with disease symptoms infectocontagious respiratory: the prevention of dissemination in public places, BP.TT; 20/12906-8 - The use of the facial mask by the person with disease symptoms infectocontagious respiratory: the prevention of dissemination in public places, BP.TT; 20/12910-5 - The use of the facial mask by the person with disease symptoms infectocontagious respiratory: the prevention of dissemination in public places, BP.TT

Abstract

Thousands of people worldwide annually die from respiratory diseases, where the elderly population is the most affected. According to the report by the Ministry of Health, in Brazil in 2019, 1,109 people died from influenza, being 54.6% of these deaths of patients over 60 years old. Since the beginning of the year 2020, the world population has been alarmed by the fast and growing rate of coronavirus infection (COVID -19) which has been responsible for infecting thousands of people around the world and causing more than 9,000 deaths. Today in Brazil (03/19/2020), according to the latest bulletin from the Ministry of Health, there are 647 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in 21 states, the most in São Paulo, with a record of 5 deaths and two deaths in Rio de Janeiro. For the prevention of influenza, WHO recommends the adoption of pharmacological measures, such as vaccines; and non-pharmacological measures such as hygiene habits, (eg hand washing), isolation of the infected individual and the use of facial masks by health professionals. However, there are still no vaccines for the prevention of coronavirus (COVID-19) and the main WHO guidelines for avoiding contamination are hygiene habits such as washing hands, covering mouth and nose when sneezing and social isolation. In Brazil, facial masks are recommended especially within hospital settings; and given the concern with prevention outside the hospital, this project aims are to address the use of facial masks in public places as a preventive method against such diseases. Thus, the objective of this research will be to promote the population's awareness of the importance of preventing infectious and contagious respiratory diseases; to understand the reasons for non-adherence or adherence to the use of mask and to encourage its use by the population as a measure of individual protection and non-propagation of respiratory diseases. The current research will be of a "quanti-qualitative" character, it will have Alfred Schütz's Social Phenomenology as a methodological reference for the analysis of qualitative data; the demographic data of the quantitative part, will be analyzed by programs such as Excel and SPSS. The research will be carried out with the general and elderly population in a very busy corridor between the two stations of train and subway Tatuapé, on the east side, in the city of São Paulo. As a result, we hope, through the reasons that led them to wear masks or not, to be able to contribute to the prevention of respiratory diseases and to reduce the number of deaths mainly among the elderly population. (AU)