Performance decrement due to altered vision while wearing a respiratory face mask.
The purpose of this investigation was to determine performance decrement due to altered vision while wearing a respiratory face mask. Lenses clouded to visual acuities of 20/64, 20/38, 20/34, 20/28, 20/23, 20/20, and 20/15 were applied to each mask while subjects performed a battery of vision tests involving tracking and hand-eye coordination skills. Generally, performance decrement followed a significant curvilinear pattern as visual acuity worsened. These findings warrant the need to investigate the transfer of this performance decrement to skills that are inherent to military-type tasks.
Dooly
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Agricultural Engineering Department, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA.
Johnson
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Brown
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D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D004867:Equipment Design; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012134:Respiratory Protective Devices; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D014792:Visual Acuity