Jordanian healthcare workers’ attitudes toward stuttering and people who stutter

Abstract

Background

Studies that have the attitudes of healthcare workers toward stuttering and people who stutter (PWS) in different parts of the world and in Jordan mainly focused on SLPs. However, no studies have examined Jordanian healthcare workers’ attitudes in general. Aim: This study explored the attitudes of Jordanian healthcare workers toward stuttering and PWS using the Public Opinion Survey of Human Attributes-Stuttering (POSHA-S) and compared them to each other and to people on the POSHA-S database, people from the same culture (i.e., Middle Eastern) and Jordan. Methods: 241 healthcare workers in Jordan were invited to answer the Arabic version of the POSHA-S online. They were divided into six groups, i.e., doctors, pharmacists, speech-language pathologists (SLPs), occupational and physical therapists (OTs and PTs), nurses, and other health professionals. ANOVA and post hoc tests were utilized to analyze the data. Results: The overall stuttering score for the whole sample of the study was relatively low compared to the POSHA-S database, but slightly positively higher than the scores of the general population from the same culture and Jordan. SLPs and OTs and PTs had the highest overall stuttering scores. Group mean differences were significant between SLPs and the other groups. Conclusions: Jordanian healthcare workers had low positive attitudes toward stuttering and PWS. SLPs’ higher positive attitudes than the rest of the healthcare workers might reflect their training and knowledge gained through working with PWS. However, there is still a need to raise awareness and knowledge about stuttering among all healthcare workers in Jordan.