Health Commun.  2020 Dec;15(2):103-108. 10.15715/kjhcom.2020.15.2.103.

Usefulness of transparent mask for communication in emergency room

• Noh M
• Han E
• Cho A
• Cho J

• KMID: 2526474
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.15715/kjhcom.2020.15.2.103

Abstract

Background
It is important to communicate accurately in the emergency department. Due to COVID-19 pandemic, a mask is mandatory to protect medical staffs and patients from infectious diseases, and the mask is known to disturb speech intelligibility. The objective of this study is to find out if a transparent mask can affect communication.
Methods
: We conducted a randomized pre- and post-test trial with 40 participants in a real emergency room environment. The reader puts on a mask and read aloud sentences which are frequently used between medical staffs and patients or among medical staffs. The type of mask was randomly assigned to the reader which was transparent or non-transparent. Frequently used 5 sentences between medical staffs and patients and 5 sentences among medical staffs from prepared 100 sentences were randomly selected and recited. Participants were told to write down the sentences they heard. Each sentence written down was graded 0 or 1. After writing down 10 sentences, reader puts on another type of mask and the same experiment was done. The order of transparent/non-transparent mask was randomly allocated to each participant.
Results
: In frequently used sentences between medical staffs and patient, average score with a transparent mask was 4.88, and with a non-transparent mask was 4.50(p=0.001). In frequently used sentences among medical staffs, average score with a transparent was 4.77, and with a non-transparent mask was 4.05(p<0.001).
Conclusions
This study showed the transparent mask improves speech intelligibility when communicating in an emergency room.

Keyword

Personal Protective Equipment; Speech intelligibility; Emergency medicine; COVID-19