The Medical Staff’S Perception of Stigma in Sexually Transmitted Diseases

Abstract

. This study aims to evaluate the perception of the medical staff about the stigma related to sexually transmitted diseases (STD) in Romania, the difficulty of the case management of patients with STD, the anxiety induced by the diagnostic, the treatment compliance and the financial considerations involved. Materials and method. 50 participants from the medical staff evaluate the themes involved through an anonymous questionnaire. For statistical processing we used R Foundation for Statistical Computing. Results. 82% of the medical staff identified a higher anxiety level at STD patients, in 80% of cases patients preferred to consider sources of contamination other than sexual intercourse, 78% of patients with STD requested keeping the professional secret towards the sexual partners. There was a statistically significant correlation between the presence of a higher anxiety level at the STD patients and the feeling of self-blame (p<0.01), the request of keeping the professional secret towards their partners and the repetitive addressability for the same STD (p=0.006). Conclusions. The medical framework perceives the STD patients’ concern to be stigmatized. This phenomenon has its impact through the individual consequences to engage in suboptimal medical behaviors, but also through consequences over the community and on the expenses of the medical system. The treatment of patients with STD represents a challenge for the medical team, considering the numerous intentions not to recognize the cause of disease, to question the ways of transmission, to protect the partner and the misconceptions regarding the complexity and high cost of the treatment.