The practice of wearing masks in community setting according to the gross national income during the COVID-19 pandemic: A rapid review and meta-analysis

Several countries have eased public and social restrictions due to declining of positive COVID-19 new cases. This review aimed to quantitatively assess the practice of wearing masks in community settings. Identification and selection of studies in MEDLINE and Google Scholar databases were performed according to PRISMA guidelines. A meta-analysis was performed, and subgroup analysis was based on the country’s gross national income classification. From the twenty-eight studies, the overall estimate of respondents who responded “yes” to whether they wore masks outside the house or in the public area was 64 (95CI: 48-78). Subgroup analysis showed 28 (95CI: 5-74), 74 (95CI: 55-87), 76 (95CI: 48-92) and 38 (95CI: 3-93) in High-Income Countries (HIC), Upper-Middle Income Countries (UMIC), Lower Middle-Income Countries (LMIC), and Low-Income Countries (LIC), respectively. We found that the practice of wearing masks in public varies worldwide. Such differences can help future research to identify variations in the natural history of COVID-19 transmission in different regions of the world. © 2021 UPM Press. All rights reserved.