Objective: Stigma among healthcare professionals may lead to poor quality of healthcare services for patients with mental illness. This study conducts a network meta-analysis to estimate the relative efficacy between different types of anti-stigma interventions for healthcare professionals.
Design: Network meta-analysis.
Main outcome measures: The attitudes and behavior intension of healthcare professionals toward mental illness.
Results: A total of 18 studies (22 trials) from 9 countries are included in the analysis. In the network meta-analysis, rank probabilities show interventions with indirect contact plus lecture (SUCRA = 81.5%), direct contact plus problem-based learning workshop (SUCRA = 77.4%), and indirect contact (SUCRA = 72.2%) having the highest probability of being ranked first, second, and third, respectively.
Conclusion: Our findings suggest that education combining social contact is the most effective anti-stigma intervention, which can be implemented in clinical practices to help reduce this stigma and improve healthcare services for patients with mental illness.
Keywords: Mental illness stigma; medical education; mental health; systematic reviews.