Perception of comfort, breathing and ease of exercise
nose pain, ’
SAID
When asked which face mask they found most difficult to exercise wearing, 40 (56%) participants said the cloth mask, 27 (38%) said FFP3 and 4 (6%) said the surgical mask. Participants felt that the surgical mask was the most comfortable (Comparison of reported comfort, ease of breathing and ease of overall exercise between the different types of face mask worn during exercise*Surgical is ranked first.†FFP3 and cloth are equal second.FFP, filtering face piece.Reported comfort of wearing different types of face mask during exercise. The graph plots the number of participants who reported each comfort score, between 1 and 9, for each of the three different types of face mask or no mask. FFP, filtering face piece.Reported ease of breathing wearing different types of face mask during exercise. The graph plots the number of participants who reported each ease of breathing score, between 1 and 9, for each of the three different types of face mask or no mask. FFP, filtering face piece.In free-text comments (There were 15 negative free-text comments about the FFP3 mask, which some participants found ‘constraining’, ‘so tight fitting it felt difficult to breathe’ and caused ‘nose pain’. Some people found this made them feel ‘a bit dizzy’, ‘really lightheaded’ or ‘as though my heart was going really high when I was wearing it’. However, there were also 10 positive comments about wearing the FFP3, with these participants reporting ‘a good fit’, which ‘was very comfortable’, ‘amenable to glasses-wearing’ and which ‘did not shake at all while running, unlike the others’.There were 11 positive comments about wearing the surgical mask, mostly reporting it was ‘fine’, the ‘easiest one’ or caused ‘little restriction’. The four negative comments about the surgical mask focused on glasses steaming up or the mask slipping.