Wearing surgical face mask has no significant impact on auscultation assessment

Scientific paper - Original scientific paper

• Author: Ivana Folnožić
• Author: Marija Gomerčić Palčić
• Author: Matilda Sabljak
• Author: Ena Vučak
• Author: Luka Vrbanić
• Author: Marija Mandić Perić
• Author: Fanika Mrsić
• Author: Aljoša Šikić
• Author: Ivan Ivanovski
• Author's institution: University of Zagreb; School of Medicine; (Department of Internal Medicine)
• Scientific / art field, discipline and subdiscipline: BIOMEDICINE AND HEALTHCARE; Clinical Medical Sciences; Internal Medicine

Abstract (english)

Objective: During the COVID-19 pandemic, universal mask-wearing became one of the main public health interventions. Because of this, most physical examinations, including lung auscultation, were done while patients were wearing surgical face masks. The aim of this study was to investigate whether mask wearing has an impact on pulmonologist assessment during auscultation of the lungs.

Methods: This was a repeated measures crossover design study. Three pulmonologists were instructed to auscultate patients with previously verified prolonged expiration, wheezing, or crackles while patients were wearing or not wearing masks (physician and patients were separated by an opaque barrier). As a measure of pulmonologists' agreement in the assessment of lung sounds, we used Fleiss kappa (K).

Results: There was no significant difference in agreement on physician assessment of lung sounds in all three categories (normal lung sound, duration of expiration, and adventitious lung sound) whether the patient was wearing a mask or not, but there were significant differences among pulmonologists when it came to agreement of lung sound assessment.

Conclusion: Clinicians and health professionals are safer from respiratory infections when they are wearing masks, and patients should be encouraged to wear masks because our research proved no significant difference in agreement on pulmonologists' assessment of auscultated lung sounds whether or not patients wore masks.

• Keywords (english): Adult; Aged; Auscultation / methods; COVID-19 / diagnosis; COVID-19 / prevention & control; Cross-Over Studies; Female; Humans; Male; Masks / adverse effects; Middle Aged; Pandemics / prevention & control; Pulmonologists; Respiratory Sounds; SARS-CoV-2
• Language: english
• Publication type: Scientific paper - Original scientific paper
• Publication status: Published
• Peer review: Peer review
• Publication version: Published version
• Journal title: PeerJ
• Numbering: vol. 12, e17368
• e-ISSN: 2167-8359
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.17368
• URN:NBN: urn:nbn:hr:105:856612
• Publication: 2024-05-24
• Document URL: https://peerj.com/articles/17368
• Type of resource: Text
• Access conditions: Open access
• Created on: 2025-02-05 12:09:43