Frontiers in Public Health (Oct 2022)

Factors associated with COVID-19 stigma during the onset of the global pandemic in India: A cross-sectional study

  • Tulsi Adhikari,
  • Sumit Aggarwal,
  • Saritha Nair,
  • Aparna Joshi,
  • Vishal Diwan,
  • A. Stephen,
  • K. Rekha Devi,
  • Bijaya Kumar Mishra,
  • Girijesh Kumar Yadav,
  • Sampada Dipak Bangar,
  • Damodar Sahu,
  • Jeetendra Yadav,
  • Senthanro Ovung,
  • Bal Kishan Gulati,
  • Saurabh Sharma,
  • Charan Singh,
  • Chetna Duggal,
  • Moina Sharma,
  • Dhammasagar Ujagare,
  • Sneha Padmakar Chinchore,
  • Pricilla B. Rebecca,
  • S. Rani,
  • Pradeep Selvaraj,
  • Gladston G. Xavier,
  • Vanessa Peter,
  • Basilea Watson,
  • T. Kannan,
  • K. S. Md. Asmathulla,
  • Debdutta Bhattacharya,
  • Jyotirmayee Turuk,
  • Subrata Kumar Palo,
  • Srikanta Kanungo,
  • Ajit Kumar Behera,
  • Ashok Kumar Pandey,
  • Kamran Zaman,
  • Brij Ranjan Misra,
  • Niraj Kumar,
  • Sthita Pragnya Behera,
  • Rajeev Singh,
  • Kanwar Narain,
  • Rajni Kant,
  • Rajni Kant,
  • Seema Sahay,
  • Rajnarayan R. Tiwari,
  • Beena Elizabeth Thomas,
  • M. Vishnu Vardhana Rao

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2022.992046
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 10

Abstract

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ObjectiveTo 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.MethodsA 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.ResultsHalf 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).ConclusionFindings 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.

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