Effectiveness of personal protective measures in reducing pandemic influenza transmission: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Patrick Saunders-Hastings; James A G Crispo; Lindsey Sikora; Daniel Krewski

doi:10.1016/j.epidem.2017.04.003

Effectiveness of personal protective measures in reducing pandemic influenza transmission: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Epidemics. 2017 Sep:20:1-20. doi: 10.1016/j.epidem.2017.04.003. Epub 2017 Apr 30.

Authors

Patrick Saunders-Hastings¹, James A G Crispo², Lindsey Sikora³, Daniel Krewski⁴

Affiliations

¹ University of Ottawa, McLaughlin Centre for Population Health Risk Assessment, 850 Peter Morand Crescent, Ottawa, ON, K1G 5Z3, Canada. Electronic address: psaun076@uottawa.ca.
² University of Ottawa, McLaughlin Centre for Population Health Risk Assessment, 850 Peter Morand Crescent, Ottawa, ON, K1G 5Z3, Canada; University of Pennsylvania, Department of Neurology, Philadelphia, PA, United States.
³ University of Ottawa, Health Sciences Library,451 Smyth Road, Ottawa, ON, Canada.
⁴ University of Ottawa, McLaughlin Centre for Population Health Risk Assessment, 850 Peter Morand Crescent, Ottawa, ON, K1G 5Z3, Canada.

PMID: 28487207
DOI: 10.1016/j.epidem.2017.04.003

Abstract

The goal of this review was to examine the effectiveness of personal protective measures in preventing pandemic influenza transmission in human populations. We collected primary studies from Medline, Embase, PubMed, Cochrane Library, CINAHL and grey literature. Where appropriate, random effects meta-analyses were conducted using inverse variance statistical calculations. Meta-analyses suggest that regular hand hygiene provided a significant protective effect (OR=0.62; 95% CI 0.52-0.73; I²=0%), and facemask use provided a non-significant protective effect (OR=0.53; 95% CI 0.16-1.71; I²=48%) against 2009 pandemic influenza infection. These interventions may therefore be effective at limiting transmission during future pandemics. PROSPERO Registration: 42016039896.

Keywords: Cough etiquette; Facemask; Hand hygiene; Pandemic influenza; Systematic review.

Publication types

Meta-Analysis
Review
Systematic Review

MeSH terms

Hand Disinfection*
Humans
Influenza, Human / epidemiology
Influenza, Human / prevention & control*
Masks
Pandemics / prevention & control*