Community Perception and Attitude Towards People with Schizophrenia Among Residents of Arba Minch Zuria District, Arba Minch Health and Demographic Surveillance Sites System (AM-HDSS), Ethiopia: Cross-Section Study

Abstract

Background

Mental health disorders have identified as being one of the public health issues throughout the world. Recent evidence reveals that more than 21 million people diagnosed with schizophrenia. However, there is little information about community perception and attitude towards people with Schizophrenia in Ethiopia.

Objective

The aim of this study was to assess the community perception and attitude towards people with Schizophrenia among residents of Arba Minch Zuria Districts, Southern Ethiopia.

Methods

A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 617 randomly selected adults. Interviewer-administered standard tool was used to collect the data. Descriptive statistics like frequency, mean, and median computed. A binary logistic regression model used to identify factors affecting community perception and attitude towards people with schizophrenia.

Results

Of the study population, 469 (76%) of respondents had good perception and 390 (63.2%) had positive attitudes towards people with schizophrenia. The study participants identified talkativeness and self-neglect behaviors as the most common manifestations of schizophrenia. Besides, this study identified substance misuse and head injury as the perceived cause and spiritual or traditional methods as a preferred treatment for people with schizophrenia. Moreover, the study participants preferred spiritual or traditional methods for the treatment of schizophrenia. Young age [AOR=2.03, 95% CI: 1.21, 3.40], females [AOR=2.32, 95% CI: 1.58, 3.41], good perception towards people with schizophrenia [AOR=4.95, 95% CI: 3.25, 7.54] and no formal educational status [AOR=2.75, 95% CI: 1.33, 5.70], and primary education [AOR=3.72, 95% CI: 1.87, 7.39] were significantly associated with the attitude towards people with schizophrenia.

Conclusion

The findings of this study indicate that approximately one-third of the residents had unfavorable attitudes towards people with schizophrenia. Therefore, giving special attention to male, elders and those who were educated, and individuals who have poor perceptions of people with schizophrenia is crucial.

Keywords:

• perception
• attitude
• schizophrenia
• Arba Minch Zuria District
• Southern Ethiopia

Acknowledgments

We would like to acknowledge all study participants for their voluntary participation in this study. We would like to extend our gratitude to Arba Minch University for all the support and opportunity that provided for us to conduct this study. Finally, yet importantly, we also extend our gratefulness to AM-HDSS office for providing us the sampling frame and for their continuous support during data collection. A preprint of this paper is online (https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2019.12.18.19015271v1).

Abbreviations

AM-HDSS, Arba Minch Health and Demographic Surveillance Sites; AOR, adjusted odds ratio; CI, confidence interval; COR, crudes odds ratio; MI, mental illness; VIF, variance inflation factor.

Data Sharing Statement

The data used to support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon request.

Disclosure

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.

Additional information

Funding

Arba Minch University supports this research financially. The university has no role in the design of the study, collection, analysis, and interpretation of the data and in writing the manuscript.