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3 Intr oduction The current conditions in society due to the COVID-19 outbreak have substantially shifted human behavior in the field of social interactions, and the use of masks remains one of the key factors in minimizing the virus’ s threat. Several or ganizations across the world have encouraged the wearing of masks to try and ease the spread of virus. However , the willingness to wear a face mask is not equal across dif ferent groups, and the inequality persists at a global level. This research aims to establish the ef fect of mask-wearing behavior of adults and the elderly in public places since the latter has been speculated to be more inclined to wear masks because of their sensitivity to COVID-19 health risks. Knowledge of these dif ferences can go a long way towards creating specific public health programs that will ensure conformity across all age brackets. Studies have shown that perceived risk and anxiety with health threats af fects complied health-protective behaviors which includes wearing of mask. Engagement in health protective behaviors, worry about COVID 19, mask wearing, time since vaccination Faasse and Newby (2020) stated that worry about COVID19 predicted the health protective behavior among Australians. It also highlighted the psychological aspects focusing on the fact that higher levels of concern about the virus were followed by higher level of adherence to the recommended health protective behaviors which included wearing a mask. This is, in concordance with Badillo-Goicoechea et al. (2021), who found that older individuals and stricter mask policies significantly predicted increased mask wearing in 38 countries. The findings also showed that female respondents were more adherent to public health guidelines than male respondents as per its demographic implications, which connects the age factor proving that seniors are much more careful about adopting preventive measures. Social capital and community support for health behaviour change have also featured in discussions during the pandemic. Chen et al. (2020) pointed out that family care and 4 receiving health information were significantly related to good COVID-19 protective practices among older people in urban Thailand as observed by Y odmai et al. (2021). Their findings pointed out that social networks play a very crucial role in determining the way people make decisions with respect to health practices and among those people who receive adequate social support tend to practice preventive measure like wearing of masks. This serves to strengthen the hypothesis that due to the dif ferential experience in life and hence social support older people may be likely to display dif ferent health behaviours compared to the young people. Furthermore, to the individual and social factors there are the external conditions which strongly af fect the manner in which people wear masks and these include state politics. Hao et al. (2021) further showed that there was higher perceived compliance from the public where mask mandates were more stringent and the COVID-19 death rates higher . The present work emphasized the relevance of considering the environmental factors that shape choices about health-related behaviors. Additionally , Milošević et al. (2022) also stressed that external factors like the environment and rates of COVID in a specific area have their impact on the compliances in a city area. According to their study , it revealed that individuals tend to wear masks in places where they feel that risk from COVID-19 is high, meaning public health must be Contextualised based on the region and population density . This study will employ an observational research methodology to evaluate mask-wearing habits among two primary age demographics: people from the working age of 18 through that of 64 years, and the elderly people of 65 years and above, in congregation within packages and shopping centres. The observation will be done secretly to determine the compliance levels of these groups to the mask-wearing policy . Other propositions concerning the research are derived from the fundamental hypothesis that the elderly are more willing to wear masks than adults because of the increased perceptions of vulnerability and 5 susceptibility to disease during the COVID-19 pandemic. The explanatory study of the variation of mask wearing across ages is hoped to extend the knowledge base of compliance to public health measures and help produce recommendations for health messaging to increase mask usage among dif ferent groups.

6 Refer ences Badillo-Goicoechea, E., Chang, T .-H., Kim, E., LaRocca, S., Morris, K., Deng, X., Chiu, S., Bradford, A., Garcia, A., Kern, C., Cobb, C., Kreuter , F ., & Stuart, E. A. (2021). Global trends and predictors of face mask usage during the COVID-19 pandemic. BMC Public Health, 21 (2099). https://doi.or g/10.1186/s12889-021-12175-9 Faasse, K., & Newby , J. (2020). Public perceptions of COVID-19 in Australia: Perceived risk, knowledge, health-protective behaviors, and vaccine intentions. Fr ontiers in Psychology , 1 1 , Article 551004. https://doi.or g/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.551004 Hao, F ., Shao, W ., & Huang, W . (2021). Understanding the influence of contextual factors and individual social capital on American public mask wearing in response to COVID-19. Health & Place, 68 , Article 102537. https://doi.or g/10.1016/j.healthplace.2021.102537 Milošević, D., Pavić, I., & Milinković, M. (2022). Mask-wearing behavior in hot urban spaces during the COVID-19 pandemic. International Journal of Envir onmental Resear ch and Public Health, 19 (9), 5481. https://doi.or g/10.3390/ijerph19095481 Y odmai, K., Pechrapa, K., Kittipichai, W ., Charupoonpol, P ., & Suksatan, W . (2021). Factors associated with good COVID-19 preventive behaviors among older adults in urban communities in Thailand. Journal of Primary Car e & Community Health, 12 , 1-9. https://doi.or g/10.1177/2150132721 1036251