Who Wears the Face Mask? Preventive Measures Against COVID-19 in Latin America Before Vaccination

The COVID-19 pandemic outbreak imposed the use of the sanitary mask as a protective measure to reduce the spread of the pandemic, recommended by the World Health Organization. However, the use of the face mask has been uneven and determined by individual, regional, cultural, and political factors. Based on data from the Latinobarometer, we aim to understand the profile of people who used a mask in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic in 18 countries of Latin America, between October and November 2020, right before the mass vaccination campaigns. Results show that women, older people, those with higher education, being employed and not working in temporarily jobs, retirees, students, people with a centrist political ideology, and Catholics, had a higher chance of using a face mask on a regular basis. People living in Venezuela, Chile, Costa Rica and Brazil were the most likely to use face masks. These results call attention to the need to understand social forces behind the willingness to adopt non-pharmacological preventive measures in order to make them more effective in health crisis emergencies. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. ### Funding Statement This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, through the Ramon y Cajal grant number [RYC-2017-22586], and the project of the National R&D&I Plan COMORHEALTHSES [PID2020-113934RB-I00]; the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) through the Research Centre on Micro-Social Change (MiSoC) at the University of Essex, grant number ES/S012486/1; and support from CERCA Programme Generalitat de Catalunya. ### Author Declarations I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained. Yes The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below: The study used (or will use) ONLY openly available human data that were originally located at: I confirm that all necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived, and that any patient/participant/sample identifiers included were not known to anyone (e.g., hospital staff, patients or participants themselves) outside the research group so cannot be used to identify individuals. Yes I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance). Yes I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines and uploaded the relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material as supplementary files, if applicable. Yes Data upon the research is done is freely available and ensures the confidentiality and privacy of the participants in accordance with relevant laws and regulations.