Implications for policy and research
chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, hypoxia, dyspnoea
VIRUS, HYPOXIA, DISEASE, CHRONIC OBSTRUCTIVE PULMONARY DISEASE, HYPOXIC
Governments globally are having to decide which public health measures to continue in response to changing incidence of COVID-19. Interventions that can contribute towards reducing transmission, while allowing people to return to normal life, are particularly important. Face masks can reduce transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and appear to be safe to wear among young, healthy adults during exercise. Public health messaging could support their use in higher risk settings, such as indoor settings with poor ventilation or outdoor exercise among large volumes of people. Surgical masks appear to be the least restrictive type of mask to wear and may help reduce transmission by preventing the forward propulsion of a large jet of exhaled aerosol particles. Cloth masks and the FFP3 were ranked similarly by participants in our study in terms of ease of exercise and breathing through. This suggests that policy makers could consider recommending either surgical masks or the more secure FFP3, as opposed to cloth masks, should face masks be required during exercise. However, the comparative effectiveness of different mask types in reducing the risk of transmission of SARS-CoV-2 does remains uncertain and could be a focus for future research. Future research could also examine the safety and tolerability of wearing a face mask during exercise among people with underlying health conditions, as results may differ from our healthy population. For example, a previous study of 97 people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease performing a 6 min walking test wearing an N95 mask reported that those with more significant disease were more likely to experience dyspnoea or breathing discomfort.Wearing a face mask during exercise does not negatively impact exercise performance. It is possible there may even be benefits for longer-term endurance exercise performance if face mask wearing did induce mild hypoxia. Hypoxic exercise training has previously been reported to improve cardiac haemodynamics and exercise capacity,