Healthcare professionals' perceived stigmatization about direct care of COVID-19 Patients: development and validation of the discrimination about COVID-19 (DisCOV-19) instrument.
{"title":"Healthcare professionals' perceived stigmatization about direct care of COVID-19 Patients: development and validation of the discrimination about COVID-19 (DisCOV-19) instrument.","authors":"Abdulmuminu Isah, Chinelo Nneka Aguiyi-Ikeanyi, Chibueze Anosike Azubuike Ekwuofu, Deborah Oyine Aluh, Blessing Onyinye Ukoha-Kalu, Maxwell Ogochukwu Adibe, Chinwe Victoria Ukwe, Abubakar Sadiq Abdullahi","doi":"10.4314/ahs.v23i4.11","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>The novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a public health concern worldwide. Healthcare professionals are among the most vulnerable groups in the fight against COVID-19 because they are directly involved in the care of at-risk persons and patients with Covid-19.</p><p><strong>Objectives: </strong>This study aimed to measure the level to which healthcare workers feel that they can be discriminated due to their involvement in the direct care of COVID-19 patients.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>A cross-sectional online survey was conducted among healthcare professionals in Nigeria. A nineteen-item discrimination against COVID-19 (DisCOV-19) questionnaire was developed and validated for the study. Descriptive statistics and One-Way Analysis of Variance were used for data analysis. <i>P</i><0.05 was considered statistically significant.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Out of the 286 healthcare practitioners that participated in the study, 58.4% and 30.1% were pharmacists and physicians, respectively. The majority of the participants were at least \"moderately concerned\" about disability (60.9%), death (71.7%), unknown complications (65.1%), and risk of infecting family members and friends (83.2%) if asked to provide care for COVID-19 patients. The physicians had a significantly higher mean discrimination score compared to the pharmacists (<i>p</i>=0.041). Pharmacists had a significantly lower mean discrimination score than the nurses (<i>p</i>=0.011).</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Many of the healthcare professionals reported a certain level of concern and perceived that they could face some forms of discrimination for providing care to COVID-19 patients.</p>","PeriodicalId":94295,"journal":{"name":"African health sciences","volume":"23 4","pages":"75-84"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2023-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11225472/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"African health sciences","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.4314/ahs.v23i4.11","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"","JCRName":"","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Background: The novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a public health concern worldwide. Healthcare professionals are among the most vulnerable groups in the fight against COVID-19 because they are directly involved in the care of at-risk persons and patients with Covid-19.
Objectives: This study aimed to measure the level to which healthcare workers feel that they can be discriminated due to their involvement in the direct care of COVID-19 patients.
Methods: A cross-sectional online survey was conducted among healthcare professionals in Nigeria. A nineteen-item discrimination against COVID-19 (DisCOV-19) questionnaire was developed and validated for the study. Descriptive statistics and One-Way Analysis of Variance were used for data analysis. P<0.05 was considered statistically significant.
Results: Out of the 286 healthcare practitioners that participated in the study, 58.4% and 30.1% were pharmacists and physicians, respectively. The majority of the participants were at least "moderately concerned" about disability (60.9%), death (71.7%), unknown complications (65.1%), and risk of infecting family members and friends (83.2%) if asked to provide care for COVID-19 patients. The physicians had a significantly higher mean discrimination score compared to the pharmacists (p=0.041). Pharmacists had a significantly lower mean discrimination score than the nurses (p=0.011).
Conclusions: Many of the healthcare professionals reported a certain level of concern and perceived that they could face some forms of discrimination for providing care to COVID-19 patients.