# Respiratory fit test panel representing population of Malaysia

## TL;DR

This study creates a new respiratory fit test panel for Malaysia using local facial data to ensure better respirator fit for most of the population.

## Contribution

The study introduces the first respiratory fit test panels based on Malaysian facial anthropometric data.

## Key findings

- Malaysians have the widest upper limit for facial width.
- PCA analysis reduced three factors to two, representing facial size and shape.
- The bivariate panel accommodated 95.0% of the population, and the PCA panel 95.6%.

## Abstract

The existing respiratory fit test panels (RFTPs) are based on Bivariate and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) which utilise American and Chinese head and facial dimensions. As RFTPs based on local facial anthropometric data for Malaysia are not available, this study was conducted with the aim to develop new RFTPs using Malaysian data.

A cross-sectional study was conducted across Malaysia among 3,324 participants of the study of National Health and Morbidity Survey 2020 aged 18 and above. Ten head and facial dimensions were measured. Face length and face width were used to construct bivariate facial panel, whereas the scores from the first two PCA were used to develop the PCA panel.

This study showed that Malaysians have the widest upper limit for facial width. It also found that three factors could be reduced from the PCA analysis. However only 2 factors were selected with PCA 1 representing head and facial size and PCA 2 representing facial shape. Our bivariate panel could accommodate 95.0% of population, while our PCA panel accommodated 95.6%.

This was the first study to use Malaysian head and facial anthropometry data to create bivariate and PCA panels. Respirators constructed using these panels are likely to fit ≥ 95.0% of Malaysia’s population.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12890-024-02919-9.