Association of social distancing and face mask use with risk of COVID-19

Sohee Kwon; Amit D Joshi; Chun-Han Lo; David A Drew; Long H Nguyen; Chuan-Guo Guo; Wenjie Ma; Raaj S Mehta; Fatma Mohamed Shebl; Erica T Warner; Christina M Astley; Jordi Merino; Benjamin Murray; Jonathan Wolf; Sebastien Ourselin; Claire J Steves; Tim D Spector; Jaime E Hart; Mingyang Song; Trang VoPham; Andrew T Chan

doi:10.1038/s41467-021-24115-7

Association of social distancing and face mask use with risk of COVID-19

Nat Commun. 2021 Jun 18;12(1):3737. doi: 10.1038/s41467-021-24115-7.

Authors

Sohee Kwon^#^{1

2}, Amit D Joshi^#^{1

2}, Chun-Han Lo^{1

2}, David A Drew^{1

2}, Long H Nguyen^{1

2

3}, Chuan-Guo Guo^{1

2

4}, Wenjie Ma^{1

2}, Raaj S Mehta^{1

2}, Fatma Mohamed Shebl⁵, Erica T Warner^{1

6}, Christina M Astley^{7

8}, Jordi Merino^{9

10

11}, Benjamin Murray¹², Jonathan Wolf¹³, Sebastien Ourselin¹², Claire J Steves¹⁴, Tim D Spector¹⁴, Jaime E Hart^{15

16}, Mingyang Song^{1

2

17

18}, Trang VoPham^{19

20}, Andrew T Chan^{21

22

23

24}

Affiliations

¹ Clinical and Translational Epidemiology Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
² Division of Gastroenterology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
³ Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.
⁴ Department of Medicine, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.
⁵ Medical Practice Evaluation Center, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
⁶ Harvard/MGH Center on Genomics, Vulnerable Populations, and Health Disparities, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.
⁷ Division of Endocrinology and Computational Epidemiology, Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
⁸ Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA.
⁹ Diabetes Unit, Center for Genomic Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.
¹⁰ Programs in Metabolism and Medical & Population Genetics, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA.
¹¹ Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
¹² School of Biomedical Engineering & Imaging Sciences, King's College London, London, UK.
¹³ Zoe Limited, London, UK.
¹⁴ Department of Twin Research and Genetic Epidemiology, King's College London, London, UK.
¹⁵ Channing Division of Network Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
¹⁶ Exposure, Epidemiology and Risk Program, Department of Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.
¹⁷ Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.
¹⁸ Department of Nutrition, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.
¹⁹ Epidemiology Program, Division of Public Health Sciences, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA, USA.
²⁰ Department of Epidemiology, University of Washington School of Public Health, Seattle, WA, USA.
²¹ Clinical and Translational Epidemiology Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA. [email protected].
²² Division of Gastroenterology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA. [email protected].
²³ Diabetes Unit, Center for Genomic Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA. [email protected].
²⁴ Department of Immunology and Infectious Disease, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA. [email protected].

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Given the continued burden of COVID-19 worldwide, there is a high unmet need for data on the effect of social distancing and face mask use to mitigate the risk of COVID-19. We examined the association of community-level social distancing measures and individual face mask use with risk of predicted COVID-19 in a large prospective U.S. cohort study of 198,077 participants. Individuals living in communities with the greatest social distancing had a 31% lower risk of predicted COVID-19 compared with those living in communities with poor social distancing. Self-reported 'always' use of face mask was associated with a 62% reduced risk of predicted COVID-19 even among individuals living in a community with poor social distancing. These findings provide support for the efficacy of mask-wearing even in settings of poor social distancing in reducing COVID-19 transmission. Despite mass vaccination campaigns in many parts of the world, continued efforts at social distancing and face mask use remain critically important in reducing the spread of COVID-19.

Publication types

Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adult
Aged
COVID-19 / epidemiology
COVID-19 / prevention & control*
COVID-19 / transmission
COVID-19 / virology
Disease Transmission, Infectious / prevention & control
Female
Humans
Male
Masks / statistics & numerical data*
Middle Aged
Physical Distancing*
Prospective Studies
Public Health
SARS-CoV-2 / isolation & purification
United States / epidemiology

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

Grants and funding