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TL;DR
This cohort study of 939 children aged 8 to 13 in Alberta, Canada (August 2020 to June 2022) examined the association between government mask mandates and parent-reported child mask use.
JAMA Network Open · 13 authors, 11 centres
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This cohort study of 939 children aged 8 to 13 in Alberta, Canada (August 2020 to June 2022) examined the association between government mask mandates and parent-reported child mask use.
This prospective cohort study used data from the Alberta pediatric SARS-CoV-2 serologic cohort to examine associations between government mask mandates and nonpharmaceutical intervention (NPI) use among 939 children aged 8 to 13 years from August 2020 to June 2022. Each day without the mask mandate was associated with a 1.6% decrease in mask use. Higher community SARS-CoV-2 case counts and parent willingness to receive a COVID-19 vaccine were also associated with increased NPI use. Limitations include quarterly questionnaire frequency preventing capture of nuanced policy changes, restricted geographic generalizability to Alberta, parent-reported rather than child-reported behavior, and inability to fully account for variation across school boards. The findings emphasize the importance of public health messaging and the duration since mandate removal in sustaining NPI behaviors in children.