Study: Compulsory face mask policies do not affect community mobility
The requirement to wear face masks reduced people's mobility somewhat in the short term, whereas over a longer time period, the policy did not affect mobility. This is the finding of a recent study on the impacts of compulsory face mask policies on community mobility in Germany.
The requirement to wear face masks reduced people's mobility somewhat in the short term, whereas over a longer time period, the policy did not affect mobility. This is the finding of a recent study on the impacts of compulsory face mask policies on community mobility in Germany.
While the use of face masks is widespread in other countries, it is not recommended in Finland. Among other things, there is a concern that wearing face masks would lead to a false sense of security and forgetting about effective protective measures, including hand washing, social distancing and avoiding crowds.
Maurice Dunaiski (London School of Economics), Roxanne Kovacs (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine) and Janne Tukiainen (University of Turku and VATT Institute of Economic Research) investigated the effects of compulsory face mask policies on mobility in Germany. The study found no evidence to indicate that the compulsory face mask policy increased citizens’ mobility.
Compulsory wearing of face masks did not affect mobility on average
On the day it came into force, the requirement to wear masks actually reduced mobility by 2.4 percentage points on average, whereas in the longer term, compulsory wearing of masks would not appear to have an effect on community mobility.
- In the light of our findings, there is no reason to believe that universal wearing of face masks would make people less likely to observe social distancing. This information is important when assessing the cost-effectiveness of face mask use as part of efforts to control the spread of the virus, says Janne Tukiainen.
The study examines mobility data from between 23 March and 21 May in the German states which made wearing a face mask compulsory and those which opted out.
An extensive lockdown came into force in Germany on 23 March. The staggered implementation of a compulsory face mask policy in certain states started in late April. Saxony was the first state to introduce compulsory face masks on the 20th of April 2020, while Schleswig-Holstein was the last to do so on the 29th of April 2020.
Exploiting the staggered introduction of compulsory face mask policies in German states, the researchers investigated the impact of this policy on community mobility independently of other relevant factors, including orders to work from home and the reopening of schools.
While the lockdown already had a considerable effect on mobility in Germany in the days before it entered into force, the compulsory use of face masks only reduced mobility slightly on the first day. In the longer term, compulsory wearing of face masks does not appear to have an effect on citizens' mobility.
The study relied on aggregated and anonymised data provided by the Google’s Community Mobility Reports service on citizens' mobility, such as visits to public spaces and hours spent at home. The study did not examine the effects of compulsory mask use on individual-level behaviours, such as hand washing or social distancing.
Researchers' blog on the study:
https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/covid19/2020/06/17/compulsory-face-mask-policies-do-not-affect-community-mobility-patterns/
Research:
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3620070
More information: Associate Research Professor Janne Tukiainen
+358 295 519 451
Janne Tukiainen
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