Caspian Journal of Pediatrics

en Children's Mask-Wearing Behaviors and the Factors that go along with them during the COVID-19 Pandemic تخصصي Special پژوهشي Research <div style="text-align: justify;">Background and Objective: Based on WHO, mask wearing may prevent coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) transmission. The aim of the present study was to investigate the prevalence of mask wearing and its related factors in Zahedan, southeastern Iran. Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out to investigate mask wearing in 408 children aged 2 to 18 years who were referred to specialized pediatric clinics at Zahedan University of Medical Sciences in Zahedan, Iran. The study ran in 2021-2022, and participants or their parents were asked about age, gender, number of children in the family, father's and mother's occupation, father's and mother's education, and family socioeconomic status. The SPSS 20 with a significance level of 0.05 was used to analyze the data. Findings: The rate of mask wearing was 61.52%. Of the children who adhered to wearing masks, 57.77 % wore three layers, 94.42% wore well-fitting masks, and 65.34 % changed their masks at least three times per day. About 53.50% of the parents of the children who refused to wear masks did not believe in this behavior, and the others had economic problems. Mask-wearing was significantly influenced by all socio-demographic factors (p< 0.001). Conclusion: It was found that 62% of the children wore masks. The majority of children who adhered to wearing masks used three layers, were adapted and changed masks at least three times per day. The majority of those who refused to wear masks did not believe in this treatment. Socio-demographic factors had a significant impact on mask wearing.</div> Behaviors, COVID-19, Mask-Wearing, Pandemic 5 5 http://caspianjp.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-189-5&slc_lang=en&sid=1 Alireza Ganjali Ganjalipsych@yahoo.com 10031947532846004632 10031947532846004632 No Department of Clinical Psychology, Health Promotion Research Center, School of Medicine, Zahedan University of Medical Science's, Zahedan, Iran Gholamreza Soleimani drsoleimani@zaums.ac.ir 10031947532846004633 10031947532846004633 No Associate Professor, Pediatric infectious, Children and Adolescents Health Research Center, Research Institute of Cellular and Molecular Science in Infectious Diseases, Zahedan University of Medical Science's, Zahedan, Iran Elham Shafighi Shahri e.shahri@zaums.ac.ir 10031947532846004634 10031947532846004634 No Assistant Professor of Zahedan University Medical Science, Fellow of Pediatric Endocrinology, Zahedan University of Medical Science, Zahedan, I.R.Iran Alireza Teimouri alirezateimouri260@gmail.com 10031947532846004635 10031947532846004635 No PhD in Demography Children and Adolescents Health research center, Research Institute of Cellular and Molecular Science in Infectious Diseases, Zahedan University of Medical Science's, Zahedan, Iran Saeedeh Yaghoubi s.yaghoubi@zaums.ac.ir 10031947532846004636 10031947532846004636 Yes Assistant Professor, Children and Adolescents Health Research Center, Research Institute of Cellular and Molecular Science in Infectious Diseases, Zahedan University of Medical Science's, Zahedan, Iran