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ABSTRACT: Objective
To assess factors associated with COVID-19 stigmatizing attitudes in the community and stigma experiences of COVID-19 recovered individuals during first wave of COVID-19 pandemic in India.Methods
A cross-sectional study was conducted in 18 districts located in 7 States in India during September 2020 to January 2021 among adults > 18 years of age selected through systematic random sampling. Data on socio demographic and COVID-19 knowledge were collected from 303 COVID-19 recovered and 1,976 non-COVID-19 infected individuals from community using a survey questionnaire. Stigma was assessed using COVID-19 Stigma Scale and Community COVID-19 Stigma Scale developed for the study. Informed consent was sought from the participants. Univariate and multivariate binary logistic regression analysis were conducted.Results
Half of the participants (51.3%) from the community reported prevalence of severe stigmatizing attitudes toward COVID-19 infected while 38.6% of COVID-19 recovered participants reported experiencing severe stigma. Participants from the community were more likely to report stigmatizing attitudes toward COVID-19 infected if they were residents of high prevalent COVID-19 zone (AOR: 1.5; CI: 1.2-1.9), staying in rural areas (AOR: 1.5; CI:1.1-1.9), belonged to the age group of 18-30 years (AOR: 1.6; CI 1.2-2.0), were male (AOR: 1.6; CI: 1.3-1.9), illiterate (AOR: 2.7; CI: 1.8-4.2), or living in Maharashtra (AOR: 7.4; CI: 4.8-11.3). COVID-19 recovered participants had higher odds of experiencing stigma if they had poor knowledge about COVID-19 transmission (AOR: 2.8; CI: 1.3-6.3), were staying for 6-15 years (AOR: 3.24; CI: 1.1-9.4) in the current place of residence or belonged to Delhi (AOR: 5.3; CI: 1.04-26.7).Conclusion
Findings indicated presence of stigmatizing attitudes in the community as well as experienced stigma among COVID-19 recovered across selected study sites in India during the first wave of COVID-19 pandemic. Study recommends timely dissemination of factual information to populations vulnerable to misinformation and psychosocial interventions for individuals affected by stigma.
SUBMITTER: Adhikari T
PROVIDER: S-EPMC9615248 | biostudies-literature | 2022
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Adhikari Tulsi T Aggarwal Sumit S Nair Saritha S Joshi Aparna A Diwan Vishal V Stephen A A Devi K Rekha KR Kumar Mishra Bijaya B Yadav Girijesh Kumar GK Bangar Sampada Dipak SD Sahu Damodar D Yadav Jeetendra J Ovung Senthanro S Gulati Bal Kishan BK Sharma Saurabh S Singh Charan C Duggal Chetna C Sharma Moina M Ujagare Dhammasagar D Padmakar Chinchore Sneha S Rebecca Pricilla B PB Rani S S Selvaraj Pradeep P Xavier Gladston G GG Peter Vanessa V Watson Basilea B Kannan T T Asmathulla K S Md KSM Bhattacharya Debdutta D Turuk Jyotirmayee J Palo Subrata Kumar SK Kanungo Srikanta S Kumar Behera Ajit A Pandey Ashok Kumar AK Zaman Kamran K Misra Brij Ranjan BR Kumar Niraj N Behera Sthita Pragnya SP Singh Rajeev R Narain Kanwar K Kant Rajni R Sahay Seema S Tiwari Rajnarayan R RR Thomas Beena Elizabeth BE Rao M Vishnu Vardhana MVV
Frontiers in public health 20221014
<h4>Objective</h4>To assess factors associated with COVID-19 stigmatizing attitudes in the community and stigma experiences of COVID-19 recovered individuals during first wave of COVID-19 pandemic in India.<h4>Methods</h4>A cross-sectional study was conducted in 18 districts located in 7 States in India during September 2020 to January 2021 among adults > 18 years of age selected through systematic random sampling. Data on socio demographic and COVID-19 knowledge were collected from 303 COVID-19 ...[more]