Seventy one percent of Madhya Pradesh college-going youth has worn facemask every time in the last seven days, while 16 percent has worn it sometime and the remaining four percent has worn it rarely.
These are findings of an online survey conducted by Pradeep Krishnatray, former director, research and strategic planning of Johns Hopkins Center for Communication programs, New Delhi and Pushpendra Pal Singh, former professor at Makhanlal Chaturvedi Journalism University, Bhopal in late July 2020. The study is part of the large-scale seven state survey of facemask use undertaken by communication and journalism faculty.
Total 1001 respondents belonging to 70 towns and cities in Madhya Pradesh filled the online survey questionnaire. Ninety percent of them were in the age group of 18 to 25 and were unmarried. Eighty seven percent of the sample was female and 67 percent was graduate; 22 percent were postgraduate and Ph.D; 11 percent had studied up to secondary level and below.
Those who wore facemask said that doing so would protect them from infection (54 percent), protect others (8 percent) and that it is ‘better to be safe than sorry’ (23 percent). Other reasons for using facemask were that they protect them as well as others (3 percent), and because their ‘near and dear ones wear’ it.
Those who did not wear facemasks (9%) gave two important reasons for not doing so. The first was that they do not step out of the house and those that did took care of themselves.
A very small percentage said that that they are ‘strong and therefore nothing would happen’ to them. A small percentage said facemasks are expensive to use.
About 57 percent of the respondents wore facemasks made of cloth. Others wore N95 masks (20%) and surgical masks (18%).About half of the respondents (48%) never removed the facemask while talking. However, others removed it every time (9 percent), sometime (21%) or rarely (22%).
More than half of the respondents (56%) did not find wearing the facemask inconvenient while others found it inconvenient.
The questionnaire included five questions related to knowledge of benefit regarding facemask use.
More than 90 percent of the respondents said that facemasks prevent droplets from traveling in the air.
About the same percentage said that facemasks are important in social settings where maintaining social distancing is difficult. Seventy one percent said that when touched facemasks fail to protect and must be replaced.
However, only 42 percent said that facemasks are full-proof way to protect oneself from Covid 19. Sixty three percent said that if 90 percent of the population wears facemask there will be no need for a lockdown.
55% of the respondents have reused the facemask more than once. And more than 80% have washed it before reuse. About 28% said they have worn it because of the police presence. Respondents use a variety of methods to dispose of the facemask.
Nearly 60% of all the respondents put it in the dustbin and wash their hands. The dustbin is kept either inside or outside the house. Some bury, burn and throw it away outside the house.
However, one-fourth of them do not dispose it at all. In such cases, the facemask is made of cloth. Some wash the cloth facemask with water or Dettol before reusing it.
