Medical/surgical masks vs no masks: Viral respiratory illness ‐ influenza/COVID‐like illness
Medical/surgical masks showed no clear difference in viral respiratory illness ‐ influenza/COVID‐like illness compared with no masks (moderate certainty).
What each review found
Current versions only| Finding | Effect | Studies | GRADE certainty |
|---|---|---|---|
Medical/surgical masks vs no masks Viral respiratory illness ‐ influenza/COVID‐like illness · general population Medical/surgical masks showed no clear difference in viral respiratory illness ‐ influenza/COVID‐like illness compared with no masks (moderate certainty). Physical interventions to interrupt or reduce the spread of respiratory viruses (2023) · Cochrane Headline outcomes only | RR 0.95 [0.84, 1.09] | 9 studies · 276917 participants | Moderate |
Findings are shown side by side, never pooled across reviews.
The reviews
| Review | Searched up to | Included studies | AMSTAR 2 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Physical interventions to interrupt or reduce the spread of respiratory viruses 2023 · Cochrane Headline outcomes only | Not reported | list not extracted yet | Not assessed |
Studies behind the findings
None of these reviews ties its included studies to this outcome in the data here. Cochrane reviews and reviews with headline outcomes only do not list their studies yet.
How reviews are matched to this question
Reviews word the same question differently. Four decision models (TypeSafe's Jev, Liquid AI's d1-ultra, SubQ Snap and Baseten's Elephant) judged each wording of the population, intervention, comparator and outcome against the others; two wordings count as the same when at least three of them agree and none clearly disagrees, and findings count as this question only when all four elements match. Timing, setting and subgroup never split a question: they are shown on each finding.