Randomized Control Trial to Study the Efficacy of the Surgical Mask Versus the N95 Respirator to Prevent Influenza

October 25, 2018 updated by: McMaster University

A Randomized Control Trial of Surgical Masks vs N95 Respirators to Prevent Influenza in Health Care Workers

The goal of this study is to compare the efficacy of the surgical mask to the N95 respirator in protecting nurses from influenza in the hospital setting. The investigators propose a non-inferiority randomized controlled trial whereby nurses are randomized to either a surgical mask or an N95 respirator when caring for patients with febrile respiratory illness during the influenza season. The hypothesis is that the surgical mask offers similar protection against influenza to that of the N95. The specific objective of the study is to assess whether the rates of influenza (laboratory-confirmed by PCR and HAI assay), as well as secondary outcomes (influenza-like illness, work-related absenteeism, physician visits for respiratory illness, and lower respiratory infection), are similar among nurses using a surgical mask compared to those using an N95 respirator.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

447

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • Canada
    • Ontario
      • Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
        • Hamilton Health Science

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Child
  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Nurses who work in emergency departments and medical units
  • Nurses expected to work full time (defined as > 37 hours per week)

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Nurses who were not fit tested
  • Nurses who could not pass a fit test

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Prevention
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Active Comparator: 1. Surgical
surgical mask
Device: Surgical mask
Surgical mask worn for patients with febrile respiratory illness
Active Comparator: 2. N95 Respirator
N95 respirator
Device: N95 mask
N95 mask worn for patients with febrile respiratory illness

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Laboratory-confirmed Influenza Infection
Time Frame: one year
Laboratory confirmed influenza
one year

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Physician Visits for Respiratory Illness
Time Frame: one year
visit to primary care MD
one year
Influenza-like Illness
Time Frame: Over entire study period
Cough and fever
Over entire study period
Absenteeism
Time Frame: over study period
Absent from work because of flu-like illness
over study period

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

McMaster University

Collaborators

Health Canada

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Mark Loeb, MD, MSc, Hamilton Health Sciences - McMaster University

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

October 1, 2008

Primary Completion (Actual)

April 1, 2009

Study Completion (Actual)

May 1, 2009

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

September 19, 2008

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

September 19, 2008

First Posted (Estimate)

September 22, 2008

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

October 29, 2018

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

October 25, 2018

Last Verified

October 1, 2018

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 6273-15-2008

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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