Perceived Stigma Towards Mental Illness and Its Associated Factors among Community People of Pokhara Metropolitan, Kaski, Nepal

Abstract

Introduction: Mental illness is a major and neglected public health problem. People suffering from mental health problems are among the foremost stigmatized, discriminated, marginalized, disadvantaged and vulnerable members of our society. According to the World Health Organization, 450 million people are suffering from mental illness worldwide and around 80% of them live in middle and low-income countries. In spite of the high burden of mental disorders, globally, around 70% of people with mental illness do not receive any treatment, and evidence suggests that stigma plays a major role in treatment avoidance. The objective of this study is to assess the level of perceived stigma towards mental illness and its associated factors among community people of Pokhara Metropolitan.

Methods: A community based cross-sectional study was conducted among the people of Pokhara Metropolitan.
Systematic random sampling was employed for the selection of 292 participants. Face to face interview was conducted for the data collection using the Community Attitude Towards Mental Illness (CAMI) scale. A Chi-square test was used to find the association between variables and stigma towards mental illness on different subscales of CAMI scale.

Results: The overall prevalence of stigma towards mental illness was 72.9%. The prevalence of stigma was high under all the four domains of CAMI scale. Age, education, occupation and income were significantly associated with stigma score in all domains. Marital status had significant association to authoritarian as well as social restrictiveness domains score. However, sex and family history of mental illness was associated with Benevolence and community mental health ideology score respectively.

Conclusion: The findings of the study depicted that stigma towards mental illness is high among the community people in all four subscales of CAMI scale. The study has revealed the stigma towards mental illness is influenced by the various socio-demographic and socioeconomic factors. This study suggested that there is strong need to eliminate the stigma associated with mental illness to improve the mental health status of the region.