Survey:
Survey on "Hong Kong adults' habit of reusing face masks"

School:
School of Nursing and Health Studies

Details:
The Acting Dean of the School of Nursing and Health Studies Prof. Linda Lee Yin-king formed a team with 12 students to conduct a survey on "Hong Kong adults' habit of reusing face masks" in April. According to the adult population by age group and gender distribution in Hong Kong, 1,000 respondents were successfully interviewed on phone about their habit of using face masks during covid-19 epidemic.

The findings showed that each respondent had 90 pieces of face masks in average which were mainly purchased or gifts in kind. 345 of them said they reused masks for an average of 2.5 days, while more than 10 percent said they processed or sanitized the mask through various disinfection methods, such as air drying, sunning, ultraviolet treatment, spraying ethanol or using sanitizer gel etc.

Prof. Lee said it was not ideal to see one third of Hong Kong adults had the habit of reusing masks. Results showed that this habit was formed because of personal perception of not having enough face masks rather than the actual amount people possessed.