Social Stigma: The Hidden Threat of COVID-19

Abdelhafiz, Ahmed Samir; Alorabi, Mohamed

doi:10.3389/fpubh.2020.00429

Cited by 123 publications

(150 citation statements)

References 11 publications

(15 reference statements)

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“…Studies have shown that during public health emergencies, when immediate and reliable information is required, there are consistently, subgroups of people that are at greater risk of experiencing stigmatisation, discrimination and harassment; hence, will need special attention and protection. 44 45 Efforts to reduce stigmatisation, bullying and harassment associated with COVID-19 cannot be isolated; actions should be the result of proactive collaboration between leaders from diverse sectors of our societies, including but not limited to governments, health organisations, religious leaders and public figures, such as athletes, communicators and social influencers.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Risk of COVID-19-related bullying, harassment and stigma among healthcare workers: an analytical cross-sectional global study

et al. 2020

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ObjectivesEssential healthcare workers (HCW) uniquely serve as both COVID-19 healers and, potentially, as carriers of SARS-CoV-2. We assessed COVID-19-related stigma and bullying against HCW controlling for social, psychological, medical and community variables.DesignWe nested an analytical cross-sectional study of COVID-19-related stigma and bullying among HCW within a larger mixed-methods effort assessing COVID-19-related lived experience and impact. Adjusted OR (aOR) and 95% CIs evaluated the association between working in healthcare settings and experience of COVID-19-related bullying and stigma, controlling for confounders. Thematic qualitative analysis provided insight into lived experience of COVID-19-related bullying.SettingWe recruited potential participants in four languages (English, Spanish, French, Italian) through Amazon Mechanical Turk’s online workforce and Facebook.ParticipantsOur sample included 7411 people from 173 countries who were aged 18 years or over.FindingsHCW significantly experienced more COVID-19-related bullying after controlling for the confounding effects of job-related, personal, geographic and sociocultural variables (aOR: 1.5; 95% CI 1.2 to 2.0). HCW more frequently believed that people gossip about others with COVID-19 (OR: 2.2; 95% CI 1.9 to 2.6) and that people with COVID-19 lose respect in the community (OR: 2.3; 95% CI 2.0 to 2.7), both which elevate bullying risk (OR: 2.7; 95% CI 2.3 to 3.2, and OR: 3.5; 95% CI 2.9 to 4.2, respectively). The lived experience of COVID-19-related bullying relates frequently to public identities as HCW traverse through the community, intersecting with other domains (eg, police, racism, violence).InterpretationAfter controlling for a range of confounding factors, HCW are significantly more likely to experience COVID-19-related stigma and bullying, often in the intersectional context of racism, violence and police involvement in community settings.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Risk of COVID-19-related bullying, harassment and stigma among healthcare workers: an analytical cross-sectional global study

et al. 2020

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“…Some features of stigma were reported against medical physicians in Egypt. For example, incidents were reported where taxi drivers did not agree to drive medical physicians, and restaurants would refuse to deliver food to hospitals due to fear of infection with the COVID-19 virus ( 33 ). This explains their feelings of a lack of appreciation of their sacrifices by the society at large during the pandemic.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prevalence, Associated Factors, and Consequences of Burnout Among Egyptian Physicians During COVID-19 Pandemic

Abdelhafiz

Ali

Ziady

et al. 2020

Front. Public Health

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Objectives: COVID-19 has been recognized as a pandemic by the World Health Organization, and physicians are at the frontline to confront the disease. Burnout syndrome (BOS) is a syndrome resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. The objective of this study is to evaluate the frequency and associated risk factors of BOS among a sample of Egyptian physicians during the COVID-19 pandemic.Methods: Using Maslach Burnout Inventory Human Services Survey, a cross-sectional electronic survey was conducted to assess BOS among the target group.Results: Two hundred and twenty physicians participated in the study. The frequency of BOS among the research group was 36.36%. The possibility of development of BOS increased two times with the need to buy personal protective equipment (PPE) from participants' own money, with harassment by patients' families, and was less likely to develop in doctors with older age. While male gender was a predictor of depersonalization (DP), female gender showed a significant association with higher emotional exhaustion (EE). Infection or death from COVID-19 among colleagues or relatives showed significant association with elevated EE and lowered personal achievement (PA), respectively.Conclusion: COVID-19 pandemic added new factors to the development of BOS in our research group. Several measures should be taken to support physicians at this stage. These measures include psychological support, organizing work hours, adjusting salaries, and providing personal protective equipment and training on safety measures.

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“…Social rejection of patients was a concern shared by the participants. Participants agreed that raising awareness about COVID-19 will lead to reduce unjustified social stigma toward patients as indicated in other studies [27,28].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 84%

“…Social stigma has been reported to have impact on people response to disease control and prevention measures [26][27][28][29]. Many participants were not sure if the reason for people getting infected with COVID-19 was due to something they did wrong.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Perception and awareness of COVID-19 among health science students and staff of Kuwait University: An online cross-sectional study

Alali

Aljimi

Altawalah

et al. 2021

Preprint

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BackgroundCoronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is unprecedented. Health science students are the future frontliners to fight pandemics. Awareness and perception toward COVID-19 among health science students and staff at Kuwait University was assessed.MethodsBetween June and July 2020, an online questionnaire was distributed to all students and staff at HCS. The questionnaire was divided into six sections: socio-demography, risk and awareness, preparedness and prevention, source of information, policies, and social stigma.ResultsA total of 592 students and 162 staff completed the questionnaire. The prevalence of self-reported chronic condition among students and staff was 14.0% and 19.1%, respectively. Moreover, self-reported COVID-19 prevalence among students and staff was 2.7% and 1.2%, respectively. Interestingly, 54% of students and 38.3% of staff reported that they knew someone within their immediate social environment who have been/are infected with SARS-CoV-2. Among students, 92.4% wore face mask in indoor places (outside of their home) often/all the time compared to wearing it outdoors (69.3%); whereas, for staff, it was more common to wear it outdoor than in indoor places (75.9% vs. 81.5%). Both students and staff showed greatest deal of trust was in official government press release and consultation with healthcare workers.Willingness to take COVID-19 vaccine was indicated by 50% of students strongly agreed and an additional 25.8% agreed to taking it. Interest vaccine uptake was lower among staff (28.4% and 34.6% strongly agreed or agreed, respectively). Participants strongly agreed or agreed (72.5% and 19.6% of students as well as 68.5% and 22.2% of staff) that wearing face mask in public should be obligatory. More than 18% of students and staff indicated that they would avoid contact with COVID-19 infected people.ConclusionsResponses of students and staff were mostly similar and showed that they follow precautionary measures to control spread of COVID-19, understand the viral transmission risk, and willing to raise awareness to reduce social stigma.

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Social Stigma: The Hidden Threat of COVID-19

Cited by 123 publications

References 11 publications

Risk of COVID-19-related bullying, harassment and stigma among healthcare workers: an analytical cross-sectional global study

Risk of COVID-19-related bullying, harassment and stigma among healthcare workers: an analytical cross-sectional global study

Prevalence, Associated Factors, and Consequences of Burnout Among Egyptian Physicians During COVID-19 Pandemic

Perception and awareness of COVID-19 among health science students and staff of Kuwait University: An online cross-sectional study

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