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Comparative efficacy of respiratory personal protective equipment against viral respiratory infectious diseases in healthcare workers: A network meta-analysis
  • Xinbo Yin
Xinbo Yin

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Abstract

Background: With the epidemic of COVID-19, the health care workers (HCWs) require proper respiratory personal protective equipment (rPPE) against viral respiratory infectious diseases. However, there is little published evidence comparing their efficacy. Therefore, we conducted a network meta-analysis (NMA) to compare the efficacy of rPPEs and the wearing manner preventing from the viral respiratory infectious diseases (VRID). Methods: This NMA protocol was registered in PROSPERO (CRD42020179489). PubMed, the Cochrane Library, Web of Science, and EMBASE were searched by computer to collect cluster randomized control trials of comparing the effectiveness of rPPEs and wearing manner in preventing HCWs from VRID. The primary outcome was the incidence of laboratory-confirmed viral respiratory infection. The secondary outcome was the incidence of CRI. The Bayesian NMA was conducted to use the control group as the comparison group. Incidence of the VRID and CRI were reported as network odds ratio (network OR) and 95% credibility interval (CrI). Results: Six studies encompassed 11,828 HCWs and seven interventions were included. In terms of the incidence of laboratory-confirmed viral respiratory infection, the continuous wearing of N95 respirator (network OR, 0.48; 95% CrI 0.27 to 0.86; SUCRA score, 85.4) showed more effective than the control group. In terms of the incidence of CRI, there are no interventions that showed more effective than the control group. Conclusion: There are significant differences in preventive efficacy among current rPPEs. Our result suggests that continuous wearing of N95 respirator can serve as the best preventive rPPE for HCWs from the VRID.
Jan 2021Published in Public Health volume 190 on pages 82-88. 10.1016/j.puhe.2020.11.004