Table 4.

Perceived discomfort

Discomfort	nm	sm	ffpm	ANOVA	nm vs sm	nm vs ffpm	sm vs ffpm
Humid	2.4 ± 2.0	4.9 ± 3.2	5.9 ± 2.2	0.003	0.069	0.001	0.402
Hot	2.0 ± 1.3	4.2 ± 2.4	6.2 ± 2.3	< 0.001	0.012	< 0.001	0.024
Breath resistance	1.7 ± 1.2	5.4 ± 1.9	7.4 ± 2.5	< 0.001	0.001	< 0.001	0.045
Itchy	1.1 ± 1.0	3.4 ± 3.1	4.9 ± 2.6	0.002	0.030	0.001	0.331
Tight	1.9 ± 1.8	3.9 ± 2.6	6.5 ± 2.3	< 0.001	0.035	< 0.001	0.021
Salty	0.7 ± 1.1	1.6 ± 1.5	3.5 ± 2.8	0.003	0.261	0.012	0.023
Unfit	1.4 ± 1.2	3.3 ± 2.3	5.4 ± 2.3	< 0.001	0.009	< 0.001	0.016
Odor	1.4 ± 2.2	1.2 ± 0.9	3.6 ± 2.8	0.011	0.956	0.056	0.036
Fatigue	2.7 ± 2.2	5.8 ± 2.5	6.5 ± 2.6	< 0.001	0.002	0.001	0.394
Overall discomfort	2.8 ± 2.2	5.2 ± 2.1	7.0 ± 1.7	< 0.001	0.012	< 0.001	0.005

Results of the questionnaire [14] quantitating ten domains of comfort/discomfort of wearing a surgical mask (sm) and a FFP2/N95 mask (ffpm) compared to no mask on a scale from 0 (no discomfort at all) to 10 (maximal discomfort) depicted as mean ± standard deviation

Significant results are indicated in bold