Mask mandates changed the factors that predict Aussie's willingness to wear a face mask

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2025-03-26 11:01

Australia; NSW; QLD

Woman in face mask walking down the street during a coronavirus lockdown in Sydney. Photo by Kate Trifo on Unsplash

The factors that predict whether Australians are likely to wear a face mask or not were different before and after mask mandates came into effect during the pandemic, according to Australian research. The study found that there were some common factors across the whole pandemic period they studied including age, time since the beginning of the pandemic (survey week), average number of contacts, wellbeing and perception of illness threat. They also found that people's compliance with other protective health behaviours was also a key feature in predicting face mask-wearing during both periods. But some factors changed before and after mandates, trust in the government and employment status, were factors predicting mask-wearing before mandates, while willingness to isolate was only a factor after mandates.

Media release

From: The Royal Society

Face mask mandates alter major determinants of adherence to protective health behaviours in Australia

Royal Society Open Science

Face masks help stop the spread of diseases like COVID-19, and understanding why people wear them can improve health advice for future pandemics. Government mandates affect mask-wearing, yet we don’t fully understand how these mandates impact people’s motivations. We studied this in Australia during the pandemic, using survey data and four machine learning models to predict mask usage before and after mandates were enforced; tree-based models worked best. We found key factors included age, week of survey, number of contacts, wellbeing, and illness threat. Before mandates, trust in government and job status mattered; after mandates, willingness to isolate was key

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Journal/
conference: Royal Society Open Science

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: CSIRO, James Cook University, The University of Sydney

Funder: No funding has been received for this article.

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