Stigma toward people with COVID-19 among Bangladeshi older adults

Sabuj Kanti Mistry; A R M Mehrab Ali; Uday Narayan Yadav; Md Nazmul Huda; Md Mahmudur Rahman; Manika Saha; Md Ashfikur Rahman; David Lim; Saruna Ghimire

doi:10.3389/fpubh.2022.982095

Stigma toward people with COVID-19 among Bangladeshi older adults

Front Public Health. 2022 Sep 13:10:982095. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.982095. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Sabuj Kanti Mistry^{1

2

3

4}, A R M Mehrab Ali¹, Uday Narayan Yadav^{2

5}, Md Nazmul Huda^{1

6}, Md Mahmudur Rahman⁷, Manika Saha⁸, Md Ashfikur Rahman⁹, David Lim^{6

10}, Saruna Ghimire¹¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Health Research, ARCED Foundation, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
² Centre for Primary Health Care and Equity, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
³ BRAC James P. Grant School of Public Health, BRAC University, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
⁴ Department of Public Health, Daffodil International University, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
⁵ National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, Research School of Population Health, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia.
⁶ Translational Health Research Institute, School of Medicine, Western Sydney University, Campbeltown, NSW, Australia.
⁷ Research, Monitoring and Information Management Organization/Institutions, Deep Eye Care Foundation, Rangpur, Bangladesh.
⁸ Department of Human-Centred Computing, Faculty of Information Technology, Monash University, Clayton, VIC, Australia.
⁹ Development Studies Discipline, Khulna University, Khulna, Bangladesh.
¹⁰ School of Health Sciences, Western Sydney University, Campbeltown, NSW, Australia.
¹¹ Department of Sociology and Gerontology and Scripps Gerontology Center, Miami University, Oxford, OH, United States.

Abstract

The onset of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic and its overwhelming physical and mental health burden can result in stigmatization toward the disease and those affected. This study aimed to measure the prevalence of COVID-19-related stigma and its associated factors among older people in Bangladesh. This cross-sectional study was conducted among 1,045 Bangladeshi older adults aged 60 years and above through telephone interviews in September 2021. The outcome was measured using an eight-point Stigma Scale, adapted to the Bengali language. Level of stigma was indicated by the cumulative score of the eight-items, ranging from 0 to 8, with a higher score indicating a higher level of stigma. On average, participants had stigmas on three of the eight items, and 62.6% had a high stigma score. The most prevalent stigmas were as follows: COVID-19 is a punishment from God (79.3%), patients with previous COVID-19 must be isolated (67.3%), and people infected with COVID-19 did not meet hygiene standards (63.9%). Participants who lived in rural areas (β: 0.67, 95% CI: 0.39 to 0.95) and who perceived needing additional care during the pandemic (β: 0.35, 95% CI: 0.09 to 0.60) had a higher average stigma score, whereas stigma scores were lower among unemployed/retired participants (β: -0.22, 95% CI: -0.45 to 0.00). The study findings suggest implementing interventions to raise awareness through appropriate health literacy interventions and mass media campaigns.

Keywords: Bangladesh; COVID-19; aged; older adults; stigma.

MeSH terms

Aged
COVID-19* / epidemiology
Cross-Sectional Studies
Humans
Pandemics
SARS-CoV-2
Social Stigma