Comfort Score
atopic, dyspnea
HEAT, ATOPIC
The finding that in particular the feeling of humidity, heat and difficult breathing, but also the overall discomfort is increased when wearing a mask, especially FFP2, is in good agreement with the results of a previous study where the Comfort Score questionnaire has been used in ten subjects wearing different mask types for 100 min during intermittent exercise on a treadmillHumidity and temperature were highest under the FFP2 and showed a good concordance with the subjective perception of humidity and warmth underneath the mask in our study. Other authors also measured the temperature and humidity under the mask or asked about associated complaints, but only a few studies did both.Liu and coworkersScarano et al.Moderate to strong correlations were observed between the perceived exertion of the subjects in general (Borg score) and the specific feelings asked in the Comfort Score questionnaire. In the case of physical exertion with FFP2, Comfort Scores correlated well with the Borg score and the physiological parameters for physical exertion (HF, lactate). This might be in line with the finding of another study that especially less trained people (strong increase in HF) seem to experience symptoms such as dyspnea or feeling hot, especially with FFP2, sometimes even at low levels of exertionSubjects who were categorized as being more intolerant of discomfort according the DIS sensitivity scale, perceived more discomfort during ergometry, whereas male and atopic subjects perceived more discomfort during workplace measurements.Since discomfort intolerance was found to influence reporting of acute health effects in response to a biological stressor in healthy subjects