The relationship between stigma and some psychiatric variables of patients with COVID-19

Abstract

Introduction: Being affected by an infectious disease creates conditions for discrimination and stigmatization. Because any infectious disease threatens the viability of the community by limiting the ability of infected people to perform their roles in society or by causing the death of those infected (Smith RA, Hughes D; 2014). Objective: We aimed to detect the relationship between stigma and some psychiatric variables of patients with COVID-19 disease. Material and methods: The study was conducted using a descriptive cross-actional design, used a semi-structured questionnaire. Results: Totally 339 patients aged 18-85 participated in the survey, and the gender ratio (women n=225, 66.37%; men n=114, 33.63%) was 3:1. The average age of total participants was 38.7±13.3, and 19.9%-29.7% of the participants were in the 21-50 age group. Demographic variables such as age, education, marital status, reduction of household income, and presence of underlying somatic problems of all participants did not have significant gender differences. Some psychiatric variables such as temperament, anxiety, depression, and social/self-stigma of all participants were significantly gender differences (p≤0.001). When self-stigma is detected at a high level, variables such as anxiety and depression are weakly positive, and the high level of social stigma had a positive moderate strong effect (p<0.05). Conclusion: 98% of patients with COVID-19 were affected by social and self-stigma, and anxiety, depression, and high level of social stigma significantly increased self-stigma (p<0.05).