Stigma Resistance and Its Associated Factors among Patients with Mood Disorder at St. Paul's Hospital and Millennium Medical College, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 2019.

Abstract

Background: Stigma resistance is described as the capacity to counteract or remain unaffected by the stigma of mental illness. Patients who have high stigma resistance have shown good treatment outcome, so working on this issue is crucial since little is known about the stigma resistance level among patients with mood disorders.

Objectives: To determine the magnitude and determinant factors of stigma resistance among patients with mood disorder attending at St. Paul's Hospital.

Methods: A cross-sectional study design was conducted on 238 study samples, and systematic random sampling was used to get the study participants. Internalized Stigma of Mental Illness Scale was used to measure stigma resistance. Data was entered using EpiData 3.1 and exported to the Statistical Package for Social Science 22.0 for analysis. Linear regression analysis (P < 0.05) was used to identify a significant association between the outcome and predictor variable.

Results: Out of 238 study samples, 235 patients took part with a 99% response rate. The overall percentage of stigma resistance was 49.5%. Low educational status (B = -1.465, 95% CI (-2.796, -0.134), P ≤ 0.031), disability (B = -0.064, 95% CI (-0.102, -0.026), P ≤ 0.001), nonadherence due to stigma (B = -1.365, 95% CI (-2.151, -0.580), P ≤ 0.001), duration of treatment (B = 0.091, 95% CI (0.042, 0.141), P ≤ 0.001), internalized stigma (B = -2.948, 95% CI (-3.642, -2.254), P ≤ 0.001), and self-esteem (B = 1.859, 95% CI (0.812, 2.906), P ≤ 0.001) were significantly associated with stigma resistance.

Conclusion: This study found that only half of the patients had stigma resistance. Low educational status, high self-stigma, low self-esteem, disability, and short duration of treatment were negatively associated with stigma resistance, so working on those modifiable identified factors with focal stakeholders will be crucial to promote the stigma resistance level of patients with mood disorder.