Social and self-stigma during COVID-19 pandemic: Egyptians’ perspectives

Abstract

Background Social stigma associated with infectious diseases existed throughout the history of pandemics due to fears of contagion and death. This study aims to assess social and self-stigma resulting from COVID-19 infection and other associated factors in Egypt during the pandemic. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted on 533 adult Egyptians via an online questionnaire. The questionnaire included social stigma toward current and recovered COVID-19 patients and the negative self-image of being a COVID-19 patient. Results The mean calculated overall COVID-19-related stigma score for the studied sample was 4.7±3.1. The highest reported stigma category was mild stigma: Social stigma towards current COVID-19 patients (88.2%), Social stigma toward recovered COVID-19 patients (64.2%), Negative self-image for being a COVID-19 patient; perceived self-stigma (71.6%) and total stigma score (88.2%) respectively. The overall stigma score was negatively associated with a higher level of education and getting information from healthcare workers and positively associated with getting information from social networks. Conclusion Social and self-stigma related to COVID-19 infection was mild from the Egyptian perspective but found in a large proportion of the population and mainly affected by getting information from healthcare workers or through social media and being more among those with lower education levels. The study recommends more legislative control on social media for disseminating health-related information and conducting awareness campaigns to counteract these adverse effects.

COVID-19-related stigma among infected people in Sweden; psychometric properties and levels of stigma in two cohorts as measured by a COVID-19 stigma scale

“…Data from India obtained from both COVID-19 recovered and non-COVID-19 infected individuals show that half of the non-COVID-19 infected participants reported severe stigmatizing attitudes towards COVID-19 infected persons, while 40% of COVID-19 recovered participants reported experiencing severe stigma [ 17 ]. High levels of stigma towards people with ongoing COVID-19 or those who have recovered were confirmed in a recent study among the Egyptian general population [ 18 ]. Furthermore, a study including back-to-school students in Wuhan, China after the initial wave of transmission showed that discrimination, internalized stigma and shame was associated with negative mental health outcomes [ 19 ].…”

Internalized stigma related to COVID-19 and its psychosocial and mental health correlates: a multicentric health facility based observational study from Nepal

“…During the COVID-19 pandemic, people have experienced stigma related to COVID-19 illness in various spectra: social stigma ( 16 , 19 , 45 , 46 ) perceived stigma ( 15 , 18–20 , 29 , 40 , 42 , 44 , 47–50 ) and internalized stigma ( 15–20 ). The relationship between social and internalized stigma has been widely discussed ( 2 , 51–53 ).…”

“…A growing body of literature has also suggested various other societal, structural, and personal factors aggravating the stigma of COVID-19. To name a few, fear and blame of transmitting the infection to others and being responsible for other’s deaths, social exclusion and social distancing during isolation and quarantine, physical violence and abuse, mental health issues, loss of livelihood, insensitive treatment by health care professionals, false information about COVID-19, social media as source of information, involvement of police in contact tracing and isolation, and legitimization of segregation by forced public health interventions, poor educational status, social support, and income have been widely discussed in the qualitative studies ( 18 , 45 , 48 ) and quantitative studies ( 16 , 17 , 19 ). However, as we have extensively assessed psychosocial factors associated with internalized stigma, similar work has not been carried out in other studies.…”