The level of the stigma of medical students at King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, towards mentally ill patients

Abstract

Aim: The study aimed to measure the level of the stigma of medical students at King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences (KSAU-HS), Riyadh campus, towards mentally ill patients. Material and Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted in King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences (KSAU-HS), Riyadh. The data collection was started in July 2017 till March 2018. The students completed a self-administered questionnaire consisting of sociodemographic data and the Community Attitudes toward the Mentally Ill (CAMI) Scale. Results: The sample size was realized as 274 participants. There were no significant differences in all CAMI subscales for the different academic years except for Authoritarianism which showed a significant increase in the level of stigma (P-value = 0.04). Male gender, previous psychiatric treatment, and having a relative with psychiatric illness were associated with higher Authoritarianism and Social Restrictiveness scores and lower Benevolence and CMHI scores. Discussion: More stigma was observed among the 4 th year students and it might be due to insufficient academic preparation as well as more exposure to psychiatric rotations. Conclusion: The results support the importance of implementing anti-stigma programs throughout the medical program to improve the healthcare provided to mentally ill patients.

Stigma Toward Mental Illness Among Saudi Medical Students

“…Furthermore, our results indicated that having been diagnosed with mental illness or having a relative with mental illness was associated with lower levels of stigma. Our results concerning having a mental illness are consistent with those of the study by Alaqeel et al (2020) and of Kluemper et al (2021), and our results concerning having a relative with mental illness are also consistent with the findings of Alaqeel et al (2020).…”

“…Comparing the pre and post psychiatry course groups, our results revealed no significant difference in stigma levels before and after the psychiatry course. Our results were consistent with those of the study conducted with students at the King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences using the CAMI scale (Alaqeel et al, 2020), the study by Muga and Hagali (2006), the study by Poreddi et al (2015), and an Egyptian study assessing the attitudes toward people with mental illness (Alaa El-Din et al, 2016), all of which demonstrated no mentionable difference in the attitudes before and after undergoing a course. The results of our study, however, are inconsistent with those of the study in South African students using the AMIQ scale (De Witt et al, 2019), Sulaiman Al Rajhi's students using the CAMI scale (Zitoun et al, 2021), and the mental illness perception study on Iranian medical students (Amini et al, 2013), all of which indicated an improvement in participants' stigma perception after exposure to psychiatry academic education.…”

“…Our results showed that 63.2% of the participants knew a relative with mental illness. This figure is higher than the 20% found in the study by Alaqeel et al (2020). Furthermore, our results indicated that having been diagnosed with mental illness or having a relative with mental illness was associated with lower levels of stigma.…”

“…In our investigation, the proportion of participants who had been diagnosed with mental illness was 32.7%. However, in a study conducted by Alaqeel et al (2020) assessing the level of stigma of medical students toward mentally ill patients, 8% of the participants answered that they had previously received psychiatric treatment. We hypothesize that the apparently higher percentage in our study could be due to how the question was asked.…”

Attitudes toward people with mental disorders in Bulgaria

“…The CAMI III questionnaire is widely used in countries around the world (Angermeyer et al, 2003; Högberg et al, 2008; Jee et al, 2006) and among different populations: the general population (Ewalds-Kvist et al, 2013; Ingram et al, 2019; Letovancová et al, 2017; Mehta et al, 2009; Winkler et al, 2016) and different segments of the population, such as medical professionals (nurses, physicians, psychiatrist, etc.) (Al-Awadhi et al, 2017; Sathyanath et al, 2016; Sévigny et al, 1999; Winkler et al, 2016), medical students (Alaqeel el al., 2020; Telles-Correia, 2015; Tong et al, 2020), cultural groups within a given society (Papadopoulos et al, 2013), or populations of particular cities or neighborhoods/areas in the cities (Brockington et al, 1993; Taylor & Dear, 1981; Taylor et al, 1979; Wolff et al, 1996).…”