psycho-social factors affecting the use of masks during the covid-19 pandemic in Be'sat hospital in Hamadan: a descriptive study

 Despite confirming the positive effect of using masks in preventing disease the level of adherence in some communities has been reported to be very low. This study was conducted to determine psycho-social factors affecting the use of masks during the covid-19 pandemic in Be'sat hospital in Hamadan.

 This Cross-sectional description study was conducted on 384 people who were referred to educational-therapeutic Be'sat hospital in Hamadan and who were selected by the available sampling method in 2022. The data collection tool was a researcher-made questionnaire that included 51 questions to assess the participants' demographic, economic, social, cultural, and spiritual status and was completed by face-to-face interview method. SPSS 26 software and Chi-square, Monte Carlo, Mann-Whitney, and Student's t-tests were used to analyze the data.

 The mean age was 36.76±11.71 years. More than half of the participants (54.7%) were men. The frequency of having a mask at the time of the interview was 48.4%. According to the findings, the frequency of use a mask in men was significantly less than in women.  Also a significant relationship was observed between use a mask and being single, more educated, living in the city, and no smoking history (P< 0.001). A significant relationship was observed between use a mask and higher economic, cultural and social status.

economic, social, and cultural factors were identified as the influential factors of mask use; therefore, it is necessary to pay attention to the preventive behaviors, social norms, and culture during epidemics.