TY - JOUR
T1 - COVID-19 related stigma among the general population in Iran
AU - Faghankhani, Masoomeh
AU - Nourinia, Hossein
AU - Rafiei-Rad, Ali Ahmad
AU - Adeli, Aliyeh Mahdavi
AU - Yeganeh, Mohammad Reza Javadi
AU - Sharifi, Hamid
AU - Namazi, Hamidreza
AU - Khosravifar, Shaghayegh
AU - Bahramian, Alaleh
AU - Fathimakvand, Mahdi
AU - Golalipour, Elnaz
AU - Mirfazeli, Fatemeh Sadat
AU - Baradaran, Hamid Reza
AU - Thornicroft, Graham
AU - Jalali Nadoushan, Amir Hossein
N1 - Funding Information:
GT is supported by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Applied Research Collaboration South London at King’s College London NHS Foundation Trust, and by the NIHR Asset Global Health Unit award. The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care. GT is also supported by the Guy’s and St Thomas’ Charity for the On Trac project (EFT151101), and by the UK Medical Research Council (UKRI) in relation to the Emilia (MR/S001255/1) and Indigo Partnership (MR/R023697/1) awards.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, The Author(s).
PY - 2022/12
Y1 - 2022/12
N2 - Background: COVID-19 related stigma has been identified as a critical issue since the beginning of the pandemic. We developed a valid and reliable questionnaire to measure COVID-19 related enacted stigma, inflicted by the non-infected general population. We applied the questionnaire to measure COVID-19 related enacted stigma among Tehran citizens from 27 to 30 September 2020. Methods: A preliminary questionnaire with 18 items was developed. The total score ranged from 18 to 54; a higher score indicated a higher level of COVID-19 related stigma. An expert panel assessed the face and content validity. Of 1637 randomly recruited Tehran citizens without a history of COVID-19 infection, 1064 participants consented and were interviewed by trained interviewers by phone. Results: Item content validity index (I-CVI), Item content validity ratio (I-CVR), and Item face validity index (I-FVI) were higher than 0.78 for all 18 items. The content and face validity were established with a scale content validity index (S-CVI) of 0.90 and a scale face validity index (S-CVI) of 93.9%, respectively. Internal consistency of the questionnaire with 18 items was confirmed with Cronbach’s alpha of 0.625. Exploratory factor analysis revealed five latent variables, including “blaming”, “social discrimination”, “dishonor label”, “interpersonal contact”, and “retribution and requital attitude”. The median of the stigma score was 24 [25th percentile: 22, 75the percentile: 28]. A large majority (86.8%) of participants reported a low level of stigma with a score below 31. None of the participants showed a high level of stigma with a score above 43. We found that the higher the educational level the lower the participant’s stigma score. Conclusion: We found a low level of stigmatizing thoughts and behavior among the non-infected general population in Tehran, which may be due to the social desirability effect, to the widespread nature of COVID-19, or to the adaptation to sociocultural diversity of the large city.
AB - Background: COVID-19 related stigma has been identified as a critical issue since the beginning of the pandemic. We developed a valid and reliable questionnaire to measure COVID-19 related enacted stigma, inflicted by the non-infected general population. We applied the questionnaire to measure COVID-19 related enacted stigma among Tehran citizens from 27 to 30 September 2020. Methods: A preliminary questionnaire with 18 items was developed. The total score ranged from 18 to 54; a higher score indicated a higher level of COVID-19 related stigma. An expert panel assessed the face and content validity. Of 1637 randomly recruited Tehran citizens without a history of COVID-19 infection, 1064 participants consented and were interviewed by trained interviewers by phone. Results: Item content validity index (I-CVI), Item content validity ratio (I-CVR), and Item face validity index (I-FVI) were higher than 0.78 for all 18 items. The content and face validity were established with a scale content validity index (S-CVI) of 0.90 and a scale face validity index (S-CVI) of 93.9%, respectively. Internal consistency of the questionnaire with 18 items was confirmed with Cronbach’s alpha of 0.625. Exploratory factor analysis revealed five latent variables, including “blaming”, “social discrimination”, “dishonor label”, “interpersonal contact”, and “retribution and requital attitude”. The median of the stigma score was 24 [25th percentile: 22, 75the percentile: 28]. A large majority (86.8%) of participants reported a low level of stigma with a score below 31. None of the participants showed a high level of stigma with a score above 43. We found that the higher the educational level the lower the participant’s stigma score. Conclusion: We found a low level of stigmatizing thoughts and behavior among the non-infected general population in Tehran, which may be due to the social desirability effect, to the widespread nature of COVID-19, or to the adaptation to sociocultural diversity of the large city.
KW - COVID-19
KW - Cross-sectional studies
KW - Enacted stigma
KW - Iran
KW - Mental health
KW - Pandemics
KW - Social stigma
KW - Surveys and questionnaires
KW - Urban population
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85137218386&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1186/s12889-022-14039-2
DO - 10.1186/s12889-022-14039-2
M3 - Article
C2 - 36064385
AN - SCOPUS:85137218386
SN - 1471-2458
VL - 22
JO - BMC Public Health
JF - BMC Public Health
IS - 1
M1 - 1681
ER -
