Range of main acoustic results by mask type.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, personal protective equipment such as facial masks and coverings were mandated all over the globe to protect against the virus. Although the primary aim of wearing face masks is to protect against viral transmission, they pose a potential burden on communication. The purpose of this scoping review was to identify the state of the evidence of the effect of facial coverings on acoustic and perceptual speech outcomes. The scoping review followed the framework created by Arksey & O’Malley (2005) and the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Extension for Scoping Reviews guidelines (PRISMA-ScR; Tricco et al., 2018). The search was completed in May 2021 across the following databases: PubMed, EMBASE, PsycINFO, Web of Science, and Google Scholar. A total of 3,846 records were retrieved from the database search. Following the removal of duplicates, 3,479 remained for the title/abstract screen and 149 were selected for the full-text review. Of these, 52 were included in the final review and relevant data were extracted. The 52 articles included in the final review consisted of; 11 studied perceptual outcomes only, 16 studied acoustic outcomes only, and 14 studied both perceptual and acoustic outcomes. 13 of these investigated acoustic features that could be used for mask classification. Although the findings varied from article to article, many trends stood out. Many articles revealed that face masks act as a low pass filter, dampening sounds at higher frequencies; however, the frequency range and the degree of attenuation varied based on face mask type. All but five articles that reported on perceptual outcomes showed a common trend that wearing a face mask was associated with poorer speech intelligibility. The findings of the scoping review provided evidence that facial coverings negatively impacted speech intelligibility, which is likely due to a combination of auditory and visual cue degradation. Due to the continued prevalence of mask use, how facial coverings affect a wider variety of speaker populations, such as those with communication impairments, and strategies for overcoming communication challenges should be explored.在新冠疫情（COVID-19 pandemic）大流行期间，全球各地均强制要求佩戴面部口罩及面部防护覆盖物（facial masks and coverings）以抵御病毒侵袭。尽管佩戴口罩的核心目的是阻断病毒传播，但这类装备可能对人际沟通造成潜在负担。本范围综述（scoping review）旨在梳理现有证据，明确面部防护覆盖物对语音声学与感知结局的影响现状。本范围综述遵循Arksey与O’Malley（2005）提出的研究框架，以及《系统评价与元分析首选报告条目扩展范围综述指南》（Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Extension for Scoping Reviews，PRISMA-ScR；Tricco et al., 2018）的规范。检索工作于2021年5月完成，检索范围涵盖PubMed、EMBASE、PsycINFO、Web of Science及Google Scholar五大数据库。本次数据库检索共获取3846条记录，剔除重复记录后，剩余3479条记录用于标题与摘要筛查，最终筛选出149条记录进行全文审阅。其中，52篇文献被纳入最终综述并提取相关数据。纳入最终综述的52篇文献中，11篇仅研究感知语音结局，16篇仅研究声学语音结局，14篇同时涵盖感知与声学语音结局；另有13篇文献探讨了可用于口罩分类的声学特征。尽管各项研究的结果存在差异，但仍呈现出多项共性趋势：多数研究表明，面部口罩相当于低通滤波器（low-pass filter），会衰减高频声音，但不同类型口罩的高频衰减频率范围与衰减程度存在差异。除5篇报道感知结局的文献外，其余研究均显示，佩戴口罩与语音清晰度下降存在关联。本范围综述的结果证实，面部防护覆盖物会对语音清晰度产生负面影响，这一现象可能由听觉与视觉线索的双重退化共同导致。鉴于口罩使用仍较为普遍，未来应进一步探索面部防护覆盖物对更多样化说话人群（如存在沟通障碍的人群）的影响，以及克服相关沟通挑战的策略。