How Does Wearing a Facecover Influence the Eye Movement Pattern in Times of COVID-19?

Background: Since the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic facecovers have become a common sight. The effect of facecovers on the gaze when looking at faces has not yet been assessed.
Objectives: The aim of the present study was to investigate any potential differences in eye movement pattern in observers exposed to images showing a face without and with a facecover to identify if there is truly a change of gaze when identifying (masked) facial features.
Methods: The eye movement of 64 study participants (28 males and 36 females) with a mean [standard deviation] age of 31.84 [9.0] years was analyzed in this cross-sectional observational study. Eye movement analysis was conducted based on positional changes of eye features within an x- and y-coordinate system while two images (face without/with facecover) were displayed for 8 seconds.
Results: The results of this study revealed that the sequence of focusing on facial regions was not altered when wearing a facecover and followed the sequence: perioral, nose, periorbital. Wearing a facecover significantly increased the time spent focusing on the periorbital region and also increased the number of repeated eye fixations during the 8-second visual stimulus presentation. No statistically significant differences were observed between male and female participants in their eye movement pattern across all investigated variables (P > 0.433).
Conclusions: The altered eye movement pattern caused by wearing facecoverings that this study has revealed suggests that, during the COVID-19 pandemic, aesthetic practitioners might consider developing marketing and treatment strategies that principally target the periorbital area.
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