Günlük fiziksel aktivitelerde yüz maskesi kullanımının solunumla ilgili fizyolojik parametrelere etkisi

Coronavirus outbreak causes every individual to wear a face mask to prevent the spread of the epidemic. Face masks filtrate air from organic or inorganic particles both in inhale and in exhale operations during the normal respiration cycle. There exists a variety of different face masks with different fabrication materials and their use may lead to obstructions in breathing under some circumstances. This thesis work aims to figure out the impact of face mask use on physiological parameters related to respiration during sitting and walking activities. A total of 15 volunteers are directed to perform two different tests; sitting indoors, and walking outdoor in ten-minute durations while their blood oxygen saturation (SPO2 percent), heart rate (bpm), carbon dioxide level (CO2), temperature (°C), and humidity (percent) parameters are being monitored. Two different wearable signal acquisition setups are developed for the acquisition and storage of the parameters. Tests are performed for no mask, surgical face mask, and FFP2 respirator. In no mask test, ambient carbon dioxide, humidity, and temperature parameters are recorded while in mask tests, these parameters are recorded at the inner dead space of the mask. For the sitting activity, very similar overall SPO2 and heart rate measurements are of concern regardless of the mask use (P= 0.58-0.36, and P= 0.82-0.85). Very similar overall SPO2 and heart rate measurements are also detected for the walking activity (P= 0.98-0.10, and P= 0.65-0.69), however, the heart rates are larger as expected for that activity. Overall CO2, temperature and humidity measurements are significantly smaller with no mask use but larger with mask use regardless of the activity (P< 0.05). Among the measurements, strong positive correlations exist for SPO2 and heart rate (r> 0.80). The rest of the measurements are with moderate or poor correlations (r= -0.39-0.96).