SynthesisPloS one2020
The need of health policy perspective to protect Healthcare Workers during COVID-19 pandemic. A GRADE rapid review on the N95 respirators effectiveness.
Synthesis in PloS one, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 26 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
26 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 52 citations in OpenAlex.
- COVID-19 Prevention and Control Measures in Workplace Settings: A Rapid Review and Meta-Analysis.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Pooled it
- Personal protective equipment for reducing the risk of COVID-19 infection among health care workers involved in emergency trauma surgery during the pandemic: An umbrella review.The journal of trauma and acute care surgery · 2021Pooled it
- Face Mask Use in the Community for Reducing the Spread of COVID-19: A Systematic Review.Frontiers in medicine · 2020Pooled it
- Efficacy and feasibility of a novel semi-facial respirator with chitosan nanoparticles on the incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in healthcare professionals: randomized controlled trial.BMC infectious diseases · 2024Trial
- The next viral pandemic-where do we stand?Folia microbiologica · 2025Review
- COVID-19 Disease in Under-5 Children: Current Status and Strategies for Prevention including Vaccination.Vaccines · 2023Review
- Article
- Robotic-assisted percutaneous coronary intervention in the COVID-19 pandemic.Journal of cardiology · 2022Review
- Personal protective equipment used by obstetricians and obstetric nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic in Mansoura, Egypt.F1000Research · 2022Article
- Safety for the Rhinologist in the Age of COVID-19: Mask Use, Nasal Corticosteroids, Saline Irrigation, and Endoscopic Procedures - Literature Review.International archives of otorhinolaryngology · 2022Article
- Admission of a Terminally Ill Lung Cancer Patient With the Accidental Diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 to a Palliative Care Unit Resulting in a SARS-CoV-2 Outbreak.Workplace health & safety · 2021Article
- Decontamination of SARS-CoV-2 contaminated N95 filtering facepiece respirators using artificial sun lamps.Journal of applied microbiology · 2021Article
- Risk Assessment of Aerosol Generation During Vitreoretinal Surgery Using High Speed Imaging Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic.Translational vision science & technology · 2021Article
- The efficacy of balneotherapy, mud therapy and spa therapy in patients with osteoarthritis: an overview of reviews.International journal of biometeorology · 2021Review
- Nosocomial infection of COVID‑19: A new challenge for healthcare professionals (Review).International journal of molecular medicine · 2021Review
- Strategies to exiting the COVID-19 lockdown for workplace and school: A scoping review.Safety science · 2021Article
- Acceptance of COVID-19 Vaccine and Determinant Factors Among Patients with Chronic Disease Visiting Dessie Comprehensive Specialized Hospital, Northeastern Ethiopia.Patient preference and adherence · 2021Article
- [Protection against COVID-19].Monatsschrift Kinderheilkunde : Organ der Deutschen Gesellschaft fur Kinderheilkunde · 2021Article
- Article
- Knowledge, Attitude, and Preventive Practices Towards COVID-19 Among Students of Ethiopian Higher Education Institutions.Journal of multidisciplinary healthcare · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
11 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Protecting Health Care Workers (HCWs) during routine care of suspected or confirmed COVID-19 patients is of paramount importance to halt the SARS-CoV-2 (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-Coronavirus-2) pandemic. The WHO, ECDC and CDC have issued conflicting guidelines on the use of respiratory filters (N95) by HCWs. We searched PubMed, Embase and The Cochrane Library from the inception to March 21, 2020 to identify randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing N95 respirators versus surgical masks for prevention of COVID-19 or any other respiratory infection among HCWs. The grading of recommendations, assessment, development, and evaluation (GRADE) was used to evaluate the quality of evidence. Four RCTs involving 8736 HCWs were included. We did not find any trial specifically on prevention of COVID-19. However, wearing N95 respirators can prevent 73 more (95% CI 46-91) clinical respiratory infections per 1000 HCWs compared to surgical masks (2 RCTs; 2594 patients; low quality of evidence). A protective effect of N95 respirators in laboratory-confirmed bacterial colonization (RR = 0.41; 95%CI 0.28-0.61) was also found. A trend in favour of N95 respirators was observed in preventing laboratory-confirmed respiratory viral infections, laboratory-confirmed respiratory infection, and influenza like illness. We found no direct high quality evidence on whether N95 respirators are better than surgical masks for HCWs protection from SARS-CoV-2. However, low quality evidence suggests that N95 respirators protect HCWs from clinical respiratory infections. This finding should be contemplated to decide the best strategy to support the resilience of healthcare systems facing the potentially catastrophic SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.