Week 6: Article Example

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PDF of article:  Mask_RCT____Symptomatic_Seropositivity_083121

This is an example I developed with on-campus students last semester. Our class periods developing this are below. Clearly, this is NOT an Informatics article in Social Science, however, I thought the topic would interest all and be useful in that way. Be sure to use a social scientific study related to Informatics for your post.

  1. Provide the citation and attach a pdf of the article (10 pts)
  2. What is the abstract of the article?  (10 pts)  
    • Background: Mask usage remains low across many parts of the world during the COVID19 pandemic, and strategies to increase mask-wearing remain untested. Our objectives were to identify strategies that can persistently increase mask-wearing and assess the impact of increasing mask-wearing on symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infections.
    • Methods: We conducted a cluster-randomized trial of community-level mask promotion in rural Bangladesh from November 2020 to April 2021 (N=600 villages, N=342,126 adults). We cross-randomized mask promotion strategies at the village and household level, including cloth vs. surgical masks. All intervention arms received free masks, information on the importance of masking, role modeling by community leaders, and in-person reminders for 8 weeks. The control group did not receive any interventions. Neither participants nor field staff were blinded to intervention assignment. Outcomes included symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence (primary) and prevalence of proper mask-wearing, physical distancing, and symptoms consistent with COVID-19 (secondary). Mask-wearing and physical distancing were assessed
      through direct observation at least weekly at mosques, markets, the main entrance roads to villages, and tea stalls. At 5 and 9 weeks follow-up, we surveyed all reachable participants about COVID-related symptoms. Blood samples collected at 10-12 weeks of follow-up for
      symptomatic individuals were analyzed for SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibodies.
    • Results: There were 178,288 individuals in the intervention group and 163,838 individuals in the control group. The intervention increased proper mask-wearing from 13.3% in control villages (N=806,547 observations) to 42.3% in treatment villages (N=797,715 observations) (adjusted percentage point difference = 0.29 [0.27, 0.31]). This tripling of mask usage was sustained during the intervention period and two weeks after. Physical distancing increased from 24.1% in control villages to 29.2% in treatment villages (adjusted percentage point difference = 0.05 [0.04, 0.06]). After 5 months, the impact of the intervention faded, but mask-wearing remained 10 percentage points higher in the intervention group.
      • The proportion of individuals with COVID-like symptoms was 7.62% (N=13,273) in the intervention arm and 8.62% (N=13,893) in the control arm. Blood samples were collected from N=10,952 consenting, symptomatic individuals. Adjusting for baseline covariates, the intervention reduced symptomatic seroprevalence by 9.3% (adjusted prevalence ratio (aPR) = 0.91 [0.82, 1.00]; control prevalence 0.76%; treatment prevalence 0.68%). In villages randomized to surgical masks (n = 200), the relative reduction was 11.2% overall (aPR = 0.89 [0.78, 1.00]) and 34.7% among individuals 60+ (aPR = 0.65 [0.46, 0.85]). No adverse events were reported.
    • Conclusions: Our intervention demonstrates a scalable and effective method to promote mask adoption and reduce symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infections.
  3. Was the study experimental or non-experimental? It is experimental. Researchers instituted various treatments to promote mask usage. These treatments were randomly assigned to groups. There was also a control group. This fits Patten & Newhart’s (2018) definition of true experiments as studies that “divide participants into control and experimental groups randomly” (p. 12).
  4. Was the research qualitative or quantitative? This is a quantitative study because it involves a very large sample of over 100,000 individuals and relies on percentages and ratios to report results.
  5. What was the population studied? 4,500 unions  in Bangladesh
  6. What sample was used for this study?  Individuals and families in 1000 unions. Further identification of people in those unions identified which treatment the household or village had, but the main sampling was completed at the local government district level.
  7. What was the method of measurement? (10 pts)
    • The study used quantitative measures that included an increase in mask usage and positive COVID tests. Both measurements could have a true zero and are ratio level measurements.
    • Of course, as we discussed in class, one could also argue that the study looked at whether or not people were social distancing and whether or not people used masks. If that’s the way the information was used, that would be nominal data.
  8. What was the method of analysis? (10 pts)
    • Researchers used t-test comparisons, one-way ANOVAs, and regression in some of their analyses.
  9. What was the conclusion of the study? (10 pts)
    • Their interventions promoted mask adoption and reduced infections.
  10.  Why is this study useful to you? Explain in detail. (10 pts)
  11. What would be the next logical step in extending this study? (10 pts)
    • “While we did not directly assess harms in this study, there could be costs resulting from discomfort with increased mask-wearing, adverse health effects such as dermatitis or headaches, or impaired communication” (p. 33).
      • A study of mask-wearing harm could be done to better understand why people do not wear masks.
    • Could also investigate whether masks reduce new infections or simply make infections less severe.

1st Class discussing the assignment:

2nd Class:

Other relevant links:

About Dr. Loggins (she/her)

Go to the website from my profile page to find out about me, my experience, and my interests in both teaching and research. If you are looking at this bio at the bottom of one of my posts, just click my name in the blog's sidebar menu to find that profile page. Also, you can email me at gmloggins@fhsu.edu, message me my slack channel https://gmloggins.slack.com (if you tell me when to expect it), or leave me a message at 785-628-4018

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