Effects of wearing face masks under moderate physical effort

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, face masks have become part of daily life and work. Only few studies have investigated potential negative effects of this measure. It was aim of this study to evaluate whether face masks may affect oygen saturation and heart reate under moderate physical effort. Ten healthy volunteers were asked to climb up four floors (96 steps) with and without a face mask. Oxygen saturation and heart rate were recorded before and after this procedure. Physical activity lead to a slight decrease of oxygen saturation of 3.0% (± 3.1) without and 3.7% (± 3.8) with face masks (p= 0.28). Heart rate increased by 31.0 (±18.7) and 33.3 (± 15.9) beats per minute (p= 0.39). Desaturation was more pronounced in individuals > 40 years, however was uncritical in all cases. This study shows that in healthy adults the use of face masks does not significantly affect oxygen supply nor cause additional cardiac load.