| Methods |
Prospective cohort study carried out in California hospital during the autumn 1984 to spring 1985 season. The study assessed the efficacy of healthcare workers (HCW) wearing goggle‐mask apparatus while visiting and caring for children aged up to 5 with RSV and symptoms of respiratory disease compared to do nothing. Children admitted with a RSV diagnosis were assigned to the 2 arms balanced for age and sex |
| Participants |
168 HCW caring for children < 5 years with differential diagnosis of RSV |
| Interventions |
Mask and goggles (sometimes gowns too) versus normal care |
| Outcomes |
RSV illness reduced from 61% (controls) to 5% (intervention)
Laboratory: swabs for RSV diagnosis
Effectiveness: RSV illness
Safety: n/a |
| Notes |
Risk of bias: low
Notes: the authors conclude that wearing mask and goggles significantly reduced transmission to HCWs and other children of RSV (61% versus 5% illness rate). Analysis is also given by number of contacts (data not extracted). A reasonably reported if difficult to conduct study. Standard procedures such as handwashing should not have acted as a confounder given 100% coverage among HCWs |
| Risk of bias |
| Bias |
Authors' judgement |
Support for judgement |
| Random sequence generation (selection bias) |
Unclear risk |
N/A |
| Allocation concealment (selection bias) |
Unclear risk |
N/A |
| Blinding (performance bias and detection bias)
All outcomes |
Unclear risk |
N/A |
| Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias)
All outcomes |
Unclear risk |
N/A |
| Selective reporting (reporting bias) |
Unclear risk |
N/A |
