Women, racial minority health workers struggle to find respirators that fitMost respiratory protective equipment (RPE) used in healthcare is not designed for women or racial minorities amid a dearth of research into how facial dimensions across sex and race affect respirator performance, according to a systematic review and meta-analysis published late last week in BMJ Global Health.
Researchers at the University of Southampton in England led the study, which involved analysis of 32 studies and anthropometric data (measurements and proportions of the human body) from 15 studies.Studies were included if they evaluated half- or quarter-size filtering facepiece respirators meeting N95/PPF3 standards of any brand, design, model, size, or